I left Rachel's house reluctantly on Sunday evening, heavy with eggplant, collards, and strawberry-rhubarb compote, thinking that I should never buy tickets in advance, especially not for shows on Sunday nights after epic dinners. But, around 1:00 am Monday morning, leaving TT's after Devotchka's crazy sold out show, I was seriously glad that I had bought that ticket, and that I had not taken that wonderful nap I'd nearly opted for instead.
I'd scarcely heard Devotchka at all before seeing them play, and I'm glad, because the records, lovely as they are, don't do the band justice. What's jaunty on the album is joyfully belligerent at the show; their most mournful song, "How It Ends", becomes an anthemic singalong; everything is noisier, and fierce. It didn't take them long to rile the crowd into a state that made me think of that time I saw the Arcade Fire*: theatrical, deadly earnest, and very very sweaty. (And they did it with polka.) I was missing the last train, and elated.
Nick Urata has Roy Orbison's warble, Morrissey's audacity, Vlad's wisdom, plus theremin skills and charm to burn. This man can break your heart in four languages.
Jeanie Schroder wore a long Chinese dress with a long slit up the side, and a sousaphone studded with red Christmas lights, when she wasn't playing the upright bass. Shawn King played drums, trumpet, and accordion. Tom Hagerman played violin and accordian and something that looked like a banana. They played like a spaghetti western if David Lynch directed it.
The brilliant violinist/saw player/banjo guy from Norfolk & Western (pictured below) joined them onstage later on, and Brian Viglione of the Dresden Dolls, who also drummed for Humanwine, was present throughout, intermittently acting as unofficial emcee/cheerleader and playing bongos. Holly Brewer (who had begun Humanwine's opening set by flinging a comic book into the audience) was undulating in the audience a couple feet to my left, all ink and patches and bullet-belted. (She'd thrown a Fantastic Four from the stage and exclaimed, "Jack Kirby!" And when she said "I wish I had some Sandman comics for you," the cheering prompted a groan from the fellow behind me: "It's that kind of crowd.")
About fifteen minutes after the Central Square T stop must've shut its gates and five hours before my alarm clock was set to go off, Devotchka preempted a second encore by kicking down each others' mic stands. The audience's employers should be grateful.
*I later read that Win Butler was responsible for Devotchka's gorgeous cover of "The Last Beat of My Heart":
We were such huge fans of the Arcade Fire that we would have jumped off a bridge if they suggested it. Doing the Siouxsie cover seemed like an easier option.
You are most likely already aware of this, but Devotchka does the music for Little Miss Sunshine, which is another reason to see it. Besides the fact that IT IS AWESOME.
Posted by: Martini-Corona | 26 July 2006 at 11:35 AM