When Elf Power Comes
I was hopeful but apprehensive going to the Elf Power show at the Horseshoe the other night. That whole guitar-bass-drums paradigm has been feeling pretty played-out for me lately, and I’ve had a slow start getting into the band’s new album, Back to the Web – on the first few listens, it seemed bland & anodyne. The record did start clicking for me a couple days before the show, though, with its Middle Eastern sounds & Celtic ballad sounds & sea shanty sounds all sewn together into, well, the Elf Power sound.
The show was really good, in any case. Lots of stuff from the new album, lots from the last one, the band seeming a tad reserved but affable & engaged. And the keyboards & other musical garnishes sure do enliven that aforementioned guitar-bass-drums paradigm; I especially liked the reworked keyboard flourishes on “Let the Serpent Sleep.” Andrew Rieger’s songs, too, are unusually spry & affecting in their simplicity. Unlike many people these days, he can even go sappy & still bring me along as a believer, as he does in the live version of “Arrow Flies Close.”
In the end I could have done with more covers (I could always do with more covers, especially since Elf Power has a whole excellent album of them), but they did encore with Eno’s “Needles in the Camel’s Eye,” which is a guaranteed shortcut to my heart.
Autobiographical aside: This was my first time seeing Elf Power. I was supposed to see them open for Neutral Milk Hotel in 1998 (also at the Horseshoe), but both bands were staggeringly late getting to the venue for some unexplained reason, so NMH went on first, & by the time they finished I ws exhausted enough & sufficiently dazzled that I decided to skip Elf Power. I was marginally less tired at work the next day, I suppose, but it probably was’t worth it.
(The Eno cover is from When the Red King Comes, and “Serpent” is from 2003’s Creatures. The live track is from a tour-only odds & sods grab bag that the band was selling at the show, and it was recorded, coincidentally enough, at the Horseshoe two years ago. Buy Elf Power’s new record here and some of their other stuff here.)
The show was really good, in any case. Lots of stuff from the new album, lots from the last one, the band seeming a tad reserved but affable & engaged. And the keyboards & other musical garnishes sure do enliven that aforementioned guitar-bass-drums paradigm; I especially liked the reworked keyboard flourishes on “Let the Serpent Sleep.” Andrew Rieger’s songs, too, are unusually spry & affecting in their simplicity. Unlike many people these days, he can even go sappy & still bring me along as a believer, as he does in the live version of “Arrow Flies Close.”
In the end I could have done with more covers (I could always do with more covers, especially since Elf Power has a whole excellent album of them), but they did encore with Eno’s “Needles in the Camel’s Eye,” which is a guaranteed shortcut to my heart.
Autobiographical aside: This was my first time seeing Elf Power. I was supposed to see them open for Neutral Milk Hotel in 1998 (also at the Horseshoe), but both bands were staggeringly late getting to the venue for some unexplained reason, so NMH went on first, & by the time they finished I ws exhausted enough & sufficiently dazzled that I decided to skip Elf Power. I was marginally less tired at work the next day, I suppose, but it probably was’t worth it.
- Elf Power, “Let the Serpent Sleep”
- Elf Power “Arrow Flies Close” (live 2004)
- Elf Power, “Needles in the Camel’s Eye”
(The Eno cover is from When the Red King Comes, and “Serpent” is from 2003’s Creatures. The live track is from a tour-only odds & sods grab bag that the band was selling at the show, and it was recorded, coincidentally enough, at the Horseshoe two years ago. Buy Elf Power’s new record here and some of their other stuff here.)
posted by DW | 7.5.06
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