My Brightest Diamond + Clare & the Reasons - Berklee Performance Center (Boston, MA; June 20, 2008)

When Clare and the Reasons finished their show opener “Alphabet City,” a love song that wistfully ponders “ABCD, just you and me,” singer Clare Muldaur told the audience, “I just saw the most beautiful rainbow.” Outside the Berklee Performance Center, the sun pushed its way through a spitting of rain, as a vibrant display of color arched over the Boston skyline — a lovely, tone setting image for My Brightest Diamond’s opening act.

Clare and her six-piece band, including three string players, quickly charmed the audience with lighthearted yet lush compositions, often speaking of blissful love. Clare carries the sound with a sweet vocal that’s as soulful as Bessie Smith, yet as innocent as Snow White.

The band likewise seemed to charm themselves, smiling and joking with each other and the audience between songs. A few minutes into the set, Clare crinkled her nose and whispered into the mic, “I went to Berklee.” Though she promised not to make inside musician jokes for the students present, she later interrupted a song to highlight, “I learned that turnaround at Berklee.” Violinist Olivier Manchon (Clare’s husband), whom she met at Berklee, was particularly charming, playfully performing a multitude of instruments and skipping about the stage when fetching them. Manchon’s simultaneous recorder and xylophone solo earned the loudest cheers of the evening. When Manchon later returned to support My Brightest Diamond’s set, a dance number prompted an audience member to yell out, “I want to see the French man dance!”

From their late 2007 debut The Movie, set highlights included “Cook for You,” “Rodi,” and “Pluto,” the latter sung in darkness, lit only with headlamps worn by the band. The crowd sang along to a Tears for Fears cover of “Everybody Wants to Rule the World,” and a new, catchy “absolutely true” song about Clare’s uncooperative car, “Can Your Car do That? I Don’t Think So.” Catchy title too.

As the stage cleared, in preparation for My Brightest Diamond, the speakers played Portishead’s recently released Third — a bit disconcerting, as the two bands sound quite similar. As with Portishead, My Brightest Diamond’s songs switch from sensual to creepy with ease. The strongest example comes from Bring Me the Workhorse’s “The Robin’s Law,” where an ambiguous pronoun in the last line “My mother made me bury her in the backyard” prompts a cold shiver. [It’s about a bird.]

When singer and songwriter Shara Worden walked onto the stage, she told the audience, “We heard there was a show going on; we thought we’d dress the part.” True to her word, Worden and her seven-piece band, which shared Clare and the Reasons’ three string players, wore coordinating, black and white, circus-ready formal wear with oversized bows, suspenders and party hats.

The band opened with “Inside a Boy” from A Thousand Shark’s Teeth, released this past Tuesday. Though few in the crowd had familiarized themselves with the new album, each live debut earned enthusiastic applause. A Thousand Shark’s Teeth, years in the making, is beautifully written and produced; however, the songs are far superior live. Worden performed with incredibly high energy and enthusiasm — often dancing and jumping around the stage — which cannot be fully captured in her studio recordings. Having never seen My Brightest Diamond perform, I was further impressed by how gracious, funny and charming Worden is on stage. Her informative song introductions and joking stage banter serve as lighthearted complements to her sometimes somber and seductive songwriting.

Before “From the Top of the World,” Worden explained that the song was based on a George MacDonald children’s story titled At the Back of the North Wind. Worden introduced “To Pluto’s Moon,” saying that Clare and she were destined to tour together because they both wrote songs about the planet [technically now, a “Plutoid"]. Also from the new release, Worden performed “If I Were Queen,” miming the flirty lyrics by pouting and crossing her arms in defiance.

Highlights from her debut Bring Me the Workhorse included “Dragonfly,” “Disappear,” “Something of an End” and “Freakout,” the last during which Worden challenged Clare to a diva dance off (and, alas, her husband did not step up, as the audience had hoped). The crowd and Worden’s bandmates sung along to the Prince cover “When Doves Cry.” Worden added “mama say mama sa mama koosa” to the song, which has now gratefully erased my memory of Akon and Rihanna butchering the classic line. After evaluating the crowd participation as “excellent,” Worden then taught the audience a series of “la la las” to sing during an astoundingly skilled ukulele piece.

For an encore, My Brightest Diamond played a cover of Kurt Weill’s 1935 “Youkali,” a French song about a utopian island. As Worden explained, “It’s kind of sad, but nice, because it’s a tango.” She then deadpanned, “Irony.” For this last piece, Worden put down her guitar for the first time of the night, allowing the audience to focus solely on her mesmerizing voice.

For such a stellar performance by two bands, the Performance Center was surprisingly empty. As I trekked home, I self-righteously scoffed at the live dolls and Amanda Palmer fanatics at Symphony Hall who were attending the Boston Pops’ EdgeFest. They were at the wrong show that evening. Worden will be playing a handful of solo shows in Europe over the summer, but will tour with the band and Clare and the Reasons in the Fall. This is certainly a tour not to be missed.

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