Taken By Trees + White Hinterland - Museum of Fine Arts (Boston, MA; Feb. 23, 2008)

I started listening to Taken By Trees on a snowy morning in February.  I sat at my small kitchen table editing cognitive psych reports, drinking tea, and dreaming of anywhere warm, sunny, free of deadlines; a perfect parallel to the first song, impatient in it’s anticipation of spring.  So began my innocent obsession with Victoria Bergsman’s lovely lyrics and sad, dark undertones.

The Museum of Fine Arts hosted Taken By Trees for the second show on their U.S. tour. The seated venue—sparse, clean, and pretentious—stood in stark contract to the dark, crusty caverns in which I usually enjoy live music: it was overall exposing. With chubby, trumpeting gold cherubs stuck on one wall proclaiming peace and harmony, I was glad I’d forgone my skull earrings. Slowly, slowly, the rows filled—a generally older crowd speckled with young “knit-cappers,” trendy 30-somethings, and friends of the Jamaica Plain opening band, White Hinterland.

Blond Casey Dienel and the men of White Hinterland (Matthew, Christopher and Maximillian) and took the stage a bit later than scheduled, fashionably hipster: two geometric design sweaters; one skinny red belt; a pair of tall, caramel-colored boots; and one slim, button-shirted bearded man. This scene felt familiar—more so than the conversation behind me of European trips with granddaughters, gardening philosophies, and history lecture series. And so I settled deep into my cushioned seat in and prepared to interpret lyrics . . . which proved an impossible feat! Dienel may well have been singing in [insert the most obscure language you can think of]. I frowned, I leaned forward, I focused in on her mouth, but try as I might, I could not distinguish one word of the first song. Defeated, I resigned myself to enjoy the high, breathy tones stitched with violin and creative percussion. By the second song, my ears hooked and reeled in some words: “Past those cities with neon lights,” and I felt a little more settled.

White Hinterland presents wonderfully unpolished and unassuming haunting, philosophical, minor-key melodies, song-letters to deities, and fun beat-and-bell percussion. And at the end of it all, an invitation to participate as the trumpet! What more could one ask for, really! White Hinterland gave a fine performance, gracious with “Thank you for listening” --- and after having their percussion instruments stolen in NYC the night before!

Taken By Trees, four dark, jacketed figures, slunk down and back stage sometime during White Hinterland’s fourth song. I have previously alluded to an obsession of sorts, and I anticipated moving, organic, ephemeral music to cup and rock me into calm. With the stage set and the hugs between Casey, Matthew, Christopher, and Maximillian and their loyal, adoring fans and family complete, the black curtains behind the stage drew open. A dramatic and playful beginning which, given another venue, could have been better executed: “Open Field” played to a time-lapse nature scene of creeping ivy and popping purple flowers. Looking back, this part of the performance made me smile most, giggle a bit, and absorbed me—a bit of a tease considering what was to come. Perhaps this is too harsh, but I must express my disappointment for this to be an honest review.

Victoria Bergsman, smug and depressed, excused herself with “My throat is really not what it’s supposed to be” and proceeded to wander about on stage during instrumental interludes, as if in search for her smile. Bergsman sang “I will take you far away” and that’s just what I wished for: an escape from the stadium-style venue in all its stuffiness to a field or mountain or lakeside where I could really feel the hollow sadness of her music. Inside in the dark, surrounded by the staid and quiet, Bergsman massaging her sore throat, something significant was missing. The performance lasted only about forty-five minutes and there was no encore (Bergman’s best friend, on tour as her 30th birthday present, ran backstage to check for more and came back shaking her head).

Taken By Trees will stay on my playlist – it is lovely fabric of sounds. The less-than satisfactory live performance at the MFA makes me wary about seeing music there again soon. 

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