The first thing the audience heard at last night's Joanna Newsom/Robin Pecknold concert at the Buskirk Chumley was "Hello, my name is Robin. I'm just going to play a few song and then Joanna is going to play and you are going to have your minds blown."
Usually I discard declarations like this at concerts, as I'm sure most people do. However, this time, Pecknold wasn't overstating the case. I left the Buskirk Chumley at 11:45 excited, sort of giddy, and with a mind that had most certainly been blown.
Robin Pecknold (also known as the lead singer of Fleet Foxes) played a very short enjoyable set characterized by personable interaction with the audience. The pinnacle of this came when he announced that the previous day had been his birthday and almost immediately thereafter the entire audience was enraptured in a birthday sing along. Afterward, Pecknold looked sheepishly but genuinely grateful. If anything, his performance felt like someone playing in front of a room full of friends. It was remarkably low-key.
Prior to his performance I wondered if it would be possible for him to recreate the cavernously massive sound Fleet Foxes are known for on his own. While he certainly made a valiant effort, employing liberal amounts of reverb, he still very much sounded like a solo artist. This is not to say, however, that it was a weak performance. The fact of the solo performance allowed for an intimacy that likely would have been impossible with a full band.
Unfortunately I was forced to step out during the one new song he performed, but according to one of my companions "It sounded like Fleet Foxes," a fact that, if you're keeping score, is a good thing. Pecknold also played two covers, one by American folk musician Jackson C. Frank and one by John Jacob Niles, both of which were expertly done. Particularly the Niles song which stretched Pecknold's clearly excellent vocal skills, allowing him to get as close to showing off as he was likely willing to come.
After a protracted intermission during which Newsom tuned her harp, her performance began in earnest with the gorgeous "'81" featuring Newsom on solo harp. "'81" was to be the last song she performed alone, though. Directly thereafter her band entered the stage. Featured in the band were: two violinists and vocalists, a trombonist, a multi instrumentalist who played guitar, banjo, and recorder, and a drummer. Needless to say this is somewhat of a nonstandard set up. As if to assuage any doubt that the arrangements would nevertheless be incredible the band began the nearly 11 minute epic "Have One On Me" immediately. As the violins begin their rolling melodies, and the drums came loping in, it became clear that any reservations were utterly baseless.
Most of the songs performed were from the newest album Have One on Me such as "Easy," "Soft as Chalk," and the climactic "Baby Birch" with its jagged guitar interjections and truly harrowing percussive charges. However Newsom also obliged fans of her early material with songs like "Emily" and "Inflammatory Writ." (From Ys and The Milk Eyed Mender respectively).
In collusion with the music, what made this concert so excellent was its continuation of the open flow between audience and artist that Pecknold established earlier in the evening. At one point, while Newsom was tuning her harp, she turned to the drummer for a joke to fill the time. When he was to come up with anything particularly compelling, he turned to the audience. From there two audience members offered up jokes, the best of which went as follows:
"Why did the scarecrow win the nobel prize? Because he was out standing in his field."
Clearly not only the band, but also the audience brought their "A" game.
Another example of this came when Newsom was asked if her harp had a name. She replied "Hail no!" continuing on to say, "this isn't actually my harp, it's a rental... I never bother to learn their names, it makes it too hard when you have to give them back."
In light of the knotty and semi-high-brow music, one might have expected this concert to be a rather sober affair. However Newsom and her band seemed to determine to dismantle this assumption. They seemed not only incredibly unpretentious, but frankly, very excited to be playing in front of such an enthusiastic crowd. Toward the end of the set, Newsom observed, "I think we finally understand each other, Bloomington" and it seems as if this is accurate. The connection between audience and performer was truly palpable at the Buskirk Chumley last night, making what otherwise would have been a great concert, a truly mind blowing one.
-Taylor Peters
