Laura Marling (after a few years) And then, The Wind and the Wave
I've fallen a bit behind, as life has taken a turn in a great direction and kept me busy, so I need to catch up on a couple of shows from a couple of weeks ago.
First up, I went to see Laura Marling at Paradise in Boston. I had seen her in 2010 when she played SPACE Gallery here in Portland. She was a small, folk artist from Britain, she was friends with Mumford and Sons and actually dating Marcus Mumford (who happened to be in the audience with us that night- of course, Mumford & Sons had not exploded into the music juggernaut that they are now). It was a great, intimate show. Laura Marling seems to thrive on the smaller settings for her shows, because the Paradise is small as well (about 900 people), even though she could probably play a theatre like Orpheum in Boston.
She played a great set, mixing older tunes with newer stuff from her latest album "Semper Femina," and I've always appreciated that she never does an "expected" encore, just ends the night with a fan favorite.
Laura Marling set:
First up, I went to see Laura Marling at Paradise in Boston. I had seen her in 2010 when she played SPACE Gallery here in Portland. She was a small, folk artist from Britain, she was friends with Mumford and Sons and actually dating Marcus Mumford (who happened to be in the audience with us that night- of course, Mumford & Sons had not exploded into the music juggernaut that they are now). It was a great, intimate show. Laura Marling seems to thrive on the smaller settings for her shows, because the Paradise is small as well (about 900 people), even though she could probably play a theatre like Orpheum in Boston.
She played a great set, mixing older tunes with newer stuff from her latest album "Semper Femina," and I've always appreciated that she never does an "expected" encore, just ends the night with a fan favorite.
Laura Marling set:
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(Townes Van Zandt cover)
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The opening band, Valley Queen, was really good, too. They had a bit of a Fleetwood Mac vibe.
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At the end of that week, I walked down the street from my apartment here in Portland to one of my favorite small venues, Port City Music Hall, because The Wind and the Wave (a small band with some great potential) were playing. This was one of those shows where you feel bad for the artist because the venue is small, but it presents itself as even smaller when the crowd is super thin. There were barely even 100 people there, which is disappointing as a music fan and an avid concert-goer, because they probably won't come back to Portland due to that one factor. But, at the same time, it feels good knowing I am supporting them and one of the few in the crowd when they came around. It was an awesome experience, too. They've got a great sound. The female singer's smoky voice sounds incredible live. Unfortunately, I could tell they were not really feeling the show, perhaps because of the small-sized crowd. I was right up front, the whole time. It looked like they had an encore scheduled on their setlist, and they did not bother to play it, which is usually a sign of the band just not feeling up for it due to lack of energy.
Their set was great, nonetheless, and they are definitely a band worth checking out.
One of the opening bands was called Native Sibling. They were incredible, even though, as the opening band they were probably playing to a crowd of about 40 people (including myself). Hailing from Seattle, this is a band that should be heading on the road, playing their own small venues as the headliners. They were incredible.
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