credit: Andrew Youssef
If you've seen the KEXP performance of "Where Do My Bluebird Fly?" by Tallest Man on Earth, you might have noticed the very end when the host of the show confesses that she was left "speechless" and goes on to admit "That was beautiful. I can sit here and listen to you play all day." Well, Tuesday night that could have very easily have been me saying that. Watching Kristian Matsson, aka Tallest Man on Earth, via Youtube does not compare to seeing him perform live. He was all by himself on stage with only an amp, the 4 guitars he alternated throughout his set, and a chair positioned several feet behind him which he would sometimes swagger his way back to and sit on from time to time. Joking and embarassingly diverting comments from girls in the audience, you can tell he was enjoying the large sold-out crowd. "You should really get to know me before you want to go spreading your babies. I might not be a good person," he teased one girl who shouted out that she wanted to have his babies.
I watched in awe the entire night. Every song even more powerful, more confessional, and even more fragile than what the record conveys. I've always had a lot of respect for performers who can own a crowd all by themselves on stage. Whether it's similar folk stuff like Conor Oberst, or someone on the complete opposite side of the musical spectrum like Jay-Z, and Tallest Man on Earth did exactly that.
My favorite song of the night was "Like the Wheel" from his new EP Sometimes the Blues is just A Passing Bird (due in November via Dead Oceans). Between the delicate finger picking of the guitar, there's a vulnerablility throughout the song, but especially in the chorus where the lines "I said 'Oh my Lord, why can't I be strong? Like the wheel that keeps travelers travelin' on. Like the wheel that will take you home" reverberated throughout the venue. He often apologized for yelling at us people, and assured the next one would be a prettier song, but I was ok with every single one of them. Pretty or not, I could have listened to every song over and over and over again. Thanks to the voice memo app on my phone I was able to record 5 songs from the show and will post them up soon.
Check out photos from the show over at Stereogum
KEXP performance of "Where Do My Bluebird Fly?" here
No comments:
Post a Comment