Tony Dekker seems like he should be playing songs softly and sweetly, beneath a lonely streetlight. The Great Lake Swimmers frontman keeps his eyes down, his mouth barely moves and his words—touching on topics like heartbreaking bricks and whispering mountains—feel like they’re constructed to hint at whatever he happens to be feeling at that thick moment in time. On stage, he doesn’t seem to be singing for you, or even for himself, but for the weird, soft world created in one of his tunes.
It’s that private feeling that makes watching him so engrossing. At the Great Lake Swimmers Portland stop on their current tour in support of the band’s fourth album, Lost Channels, Dekker and his cohort worked through eighteen songs of varying tempo and sound, but the one constant was the wonderful (if voyeuristic) notion that you were peering into Decker’s subconscious, and that he didn’t care. “It’s like someone else is driving, like this body isn’t mine,” he sang halfway through the set during a solo rendition of “Stealing Tomorrow,” a song off the new disk. That sense of endless—but not necessarily horrific—chaos was punctuated at the end of the number when Dekker powerfully repeated the line, “I haven’t crash-landed yet.”
The show highlighted more than just the mysterious aura around Dekker, though. At its best, the music would start slow and focused, with just the sound of Dekker’s voice floating above his acoustic guitar, and would get molded into something bigger by the musicians surrounding him. Erik Arnesen, Dekker’s right-hand man since the two started the Toronto-based outfit six years ago, added a rural streak with quick-paced banjo patterns in some songs and grabbed an electric guitar to bring expansive ambience to others. Miranda Mulholland’s willowy violin notes worked well with Dekker’s voice and lyrical subject matter, and the songs that had the most build-up usually ended with her fast-moving bow pumping out scratchy bars that matched Arnesen’s playing on the other side of the stage. Mulholland could have been featured more, in fact.
Great Lake Swimmers’ set featured a good sampling of music from Lost Channels, which was recorded in church halls and barns in the quiet Thousand Island region along the Canada-U.S. border, and was released this past spring. The album’s straightforward and catchy single “Pulling on a Line” got the crowd swaying, as did the clawhammer–banjo driven “Your Rocky Spine,” off the band’s 2007 Ongiara.
Other times, Dekker reached back to earlier albums, and late in the evening played “Moving Pictures Silent Films,” the first track on the band’s debut record. Before starting in, Dekker acknowledged it was one of the first songs he ever wrote. As he gently strummed the opening notes, the focus moved back to the singer, his airy voice, and the loneliness that surrounded him, even though he was center stage in a packed concert venue. “The heart beats slower and slower,” he sang, his eyes once again pointed at the floor in front of him, “to almost nothing.”
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way to get good pics out of the doug fir! that’s a tall order.
by colin on Mon Nov 30, 2009 at 02.29 pm from the entry: Russian Circles + Young Widows - Doug Fir Lounge (Portland, OR; Nov. 17, 2009)
WOWOWOWOWOWOWOWOWOWOWOW
by sincerious on Sun Nov 29, 2009 at 11.28 am from the entry: Ginuwine's "Pony" Deconstructed Through Dubstep (Remix)
LOL I love the accent.
by Vicente E. on Sun Nov 29, 2009 at 04.26 am from the entry: We Were Promised Jetpacks - "These Four Walls" - Buy It
Chopin and Òlafur Arnalds aren’t even really worth a comparison. Their music is nothing alike.
by sylviadarling on Sat Nov 28, 2009 at 07.22 pm from the entry: Òlafur Arnalds - "Found Songs" - Borrow It
glad everybody is diggin’ it. And Dre Ja Vu, send us your mixes when you’re done. If they are good we’ll post one.
by Colin on Sat Nov 28, 2009 at 05.49 pm from the entry: Ginuwine's "Pony" Deconstructed Through Dubstep (Remix)
There was definitely a guy surfing in a wheelchair. I tried to capture it with my camera, but it was a total blur. He came over the barricade 3 times. The first time, he came over AFTER his wheelchair.
by Jill Rachel on Fri Nov 27, 2009 at 03.24 pm from the entry: Motorhead + Reverend Horton Heat + Nashville Pussy - Showbox Sodo (Seattle, WA; Oct. 02,2009)
Sick I was mixing the original in my dubstep mixes, but this just kicks it up. Thank you!!!
by Dre Ja Vu on Thu Nov 26, 2009 at 09.13 pm from the entry: Ginuwine's "Pony" Deconstructed Through Dubstep (Remix)
Great descriptive review. I have to admit, though, I was quite underwhelmed by their performance in Boston last Spring. Perhaps they’re hitting their stride now.