Iron & Wine

Dave and I went to see Iron & Wine at Terminal 5 last night--somewhat reluctantly, since we figured Town Hall was more of an Iron & Wine-y place, and we'd managed to avoid Terminal 5 up to this point and were suspicious, but this was what there was.

Well, we were right. I walked in and was transported back to college in Minneapolis, and nights of going to The Quest--only it wasn't Paul van Dyk or Carl Coxx, it was Sam Beam with his mumbling South Carolina beard, and the post-industrial look and blacklight-lit bathrooms did not mesh with him at all.

On the other hand, the merch table had knitting. In fact, they were selling Koolhaas, which was highly amusing, and totally appropriate, though I did wonder what Jared Flood would think of it.

The crowd was all riding boots and knitwear (and we were no exception), but there were a lot of them. The arms-up iPhone videoing, the directly in our eyes strobe of flash photography, and about five elbows in my back was making the show distinctly unpleasant--enough so that I couldn't concentrate on the music at all. After about two songs, we moved back by the door and sat on the floor and were much happier.

So the whole point of going to see shows is to hear the songs you know performed slightly differently (and at a higher volume) right? Well, Iron & Wine delivered, and it's not their fault we decided we like the originals better. Dave was disappointed by The Devil Never Sleeps--the driving beats were abandoned, the tempo was slowed down. I very much enjoyed Flightless Bird, American Mouth and Naked As We Came, but others (that I can't name because the song itself often got lost) melted away into some excessive piano soloing and various other jamming businesses, which probably would've been great if you were stoned, but we didn't realize we were going to a Dead show. (Others in the audience seemed to have come prepared, though).

I have the sort of slightly manic, make guns with your fingers and run down the hallways and talk to yourself while you're at it energy that sometimes comes with not enough sleep. Iron & Wine would probably calm me down some, but I forgot my iPod. Looks like it's a day of filing and stuffing envelopes for me....