2023-11-26 19:04:32
Always guaranteeing a great lineup, the Friday of Autumn Leaves 2023 with Ben Caplan, Okkervil River-Head Will Sheff and den Magnetic Fields for a particularly top-class delicacy from festival history.
To say it right at the beginning: Yes, Plateau has once again done a great job organizationally and has kept the ticket prices simply fantastically fan-friendly in today’s times, while the location not only inspires the invited musicians once again (or, in the case of Sheff and Merritt, also latently worried about the naturalness of a performance under the Earth makes you think), but it does practically everything right, from the good sound to the pleasantly short conversion phases between the acts.
So what could go wrong under these conditions?
Ben Caplan Live is practically the ideal balancing act between Jack Black and Tom Waits, as seen in the sensitive set opener Pure Imagination over around 47 minutes (including the encore) with full dynamism and fervor, oscillating somewhere between teeth-baring, barking comedy and poignant drama – mostly on the electric piano, sometimes on the guitar (and once, for once, to celebrate the occasion, with his hairy head no friends making harmonica). He mourns the fact that Eric Caplin has turned out to be an ass and soulfully croones his own heartwarming ballad to let himself be eaten by worms, preaches irascibly as a prairie entertainer and blurs the boundaries between song and narrative where no understatement is required.
In short: the Canadian entertains the audience brilliantly – it’s just a shame that in the quiet moments someone always has to chat, and not just at the bar.
Will Sheff He almost doesn’t have to worry about it: he’s in a good mood, looks like John Lennon took fashion tips from Kurt Cobain, and has his current touring band behind him (which isn’t Okkervil River is, but mainly Okkervil River-Songs plays – too Okkervil River RIP By the way, even though the band didn’t die at all, as Sheff reassuringly tells us, they were clearly keen to rock. Loud!
Nevertheless, he hesitates to start So Come Back, I Am Waiting Inevitably something goes on until calm finally returns, but otherwise, given the exuberance that the material conveys live (which is particularly the case with the three representatives of Nothing Special gain significant momentum in direct comparison to the studio recording), let go with a grin and allows the setlist to repeatedly drift into compact jam outbursts. Nevertheless, the energetic sing-along spark wants it Down Down the Deep River or a decidedly brisk one John Allyn Smith Smith Sails ignite on stage, only skip to a limited extent: with Sheff, the real magic usually happens in the quiet moments.
Instead, the 47-year-old leaves the stage before the end, bursting with energy No Key, No Plan and lets his accompanists (with the lead guitar, subjectively mixed too quietly in general, and therefore the bass appearing too sluggish at times) draw an edgy, quite unexpected loop around the upbeat, crisp and admittedly too short set of less than an hour of playing time.
Setlist:
Plus Ones
Estrangement Zone
Okkervil River R.I.P.
The Spiral Season
Like the Last Time
John Allyn Smith Sails
For Real
Down Down the Deep River
So Come Back, I Am Waiting
No Key, No Plan
Encountered the speaking audience The Magnetic Fields-Baritone Stephin Merritt later with lethargic irony with the anecdote about a friend who couldn’t keep his mouth shut when going to a concert – until he was reminded how much he had paid for admission.
Even after this dry intermezzo, the audience is now full to the brim (but absolutely pleasantly by no means overcrowded!) Dom im Berg Not quiet. However, in a positive sense: how incredibly lyrically confident the crowd is, between reverent rapture and euphoric enthusiasm, that hangs on the band’s every word over long stretches of the show is simply remarkable.
Supported by Merritt’s relatively laconic direction, they play well Magnetic Fields – Shirley Simms (on banjo and as many songs as the communal experience All My Little Words vocally sublimely ennobling), Sam Davol, Chris Ewen and Anthony Kaczinski (who enlivened it). The Luckiest Guy on East Side can sing – and absolutely shines with a long finale) – through a colorful potpourri of her studio albums around the dominant one 69 Love Songs. How much even less prominent representatives of the discography feel like instantly familiar instant favorites, while classics a la The Book of Love in the cozy anti-show (Merritt notes right at the beginning that, unlike Sheff, they don’t have a drummer with them – and after his rousing performance they provide more of a soundtrack for going to bed) in the class of times sublime, The sometimes quirkily presented material develops a simply moving pull – and a total of 30 songs still seem entertaining.
The band’s last really outstanding releases may have been in the rearview mirror for some time: they are live Magnetic Fields a calm indie bank that absolutely deserves to be the main act on this high-class evening.
Setlist:
Castles of America
I Don’t Believe in the Sun
Love Goes Home to Paris in the Spring
Kraftwerk in a Blackout
Born on a Train
Come Back From San Francisco
Desert Island
Kiss Me Like You Mean It
Andrew in Drag
The Flowers She Sent and the Flowers She Said She Sent
The Day the Politicians Died
(I Want to Join A) Biker Gang
Candy
Drive On, Driver
The Book of Love
Quick!
’01 Have You Seen It in the Snow?
Smoke and Mirrors
Papa Was a Rodeo
All My Little Words
The Luckiest Guy on the Lower East Side
Death Pact (Let’s Make A)
No One Will Ever Love You
All the Umbrellas in London
’02 Be True to Your Bar
Take Ecstasy With Me
’14 I Wish I Had PicturesEncore:
A Chicken With Its Head Cut Off
100,000 Fireflies
It’s Only Time
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