Efterklang @ Nectar
Plus Peter Broderick (Slight Return).
It seems like only yesterday that Peter Broderick was here at Nectar, opening for local alt-folkie Tiny Vipers. Well, maybe not yesterday, but it was barely more than a month ago. Now here he is again, on the same stage, with the same assortment of instruments and looping devices, playing some of the same songs, for a somewhat larger crowd. There’s an odd sense of deja vu, but also a sense of anticipation. When he introduces the folk song that his father played for him as a child, those of us who were here for his last show know that the introduction becomes a part of the composition. We watch the faces around us as we wait for these little surprises to crop up. We know that look people get at those moments of musical epiphany, because we were here making that same look not too long ago.
It would be easy to write off his little musical tricks as gimmicks, but they’re not simple novelty. There’s a real sense of showmanship to them, of acknowledging his methods and incorporating them into the creation, rather than trying to make everything seamless. He keeps reminding you of what he’s doing, layering, looping, and manipulating; not as a way to distract from what he’s actually playing, but as a way to heighten appreciation. Not only is a he a brilliant instrumentalist and singer, but he’s also thinking and planning two steps ahead of himself at all times.
At one point he had the whole audience repeat some spoken lines after him, while recording us with a handheld recorder. Supposedly, this will be included somewhere on his next album.
For all of Peter Broderick’s talent as a solo musician, the real main event tonight was Efterklang, the 7-piece (8 if you count their soundman) Danish/American collective responsible for the 2007 album Parades, a sweeping epic that somehow combines melancholy indie rock, wisps of electronic texture, choral vocals, and marches. Going in, I was a little worried. How can something so huge, so layered, and so intricately arranged, be reproduced by a handful of musicians?
I was wrong to be worried. Experiencing these songs live was every bit as rich and rewarding as hearing them on record. All 7 of the musicians on stage sang and played multiple instruments, often switching instruments or spots on stage mid-song. Between 7 part vocal harmonies, and a miasma of guitar, bass, drums, piano, violin, flute, trumpet, glockenspiel, shakers, tambourines, and laptop, there was never a sense of anything lacking from the arrangement. Not to say that it was overwhelming, or overworked. They moved from stately and restrained to dramatic and bombastic, delicate to aggressive, ecstatic to bittersweet.
Since this was the first date of their US tour, we were also treated to the world premiere of several brand new songs, many of them only known by working titles like “Loose Ends” or “I Was Playing Drums”. These new songs were just as intricately crafted as the more familiar material, feeling just as fully realized and well-thought-out. They’re going to be spending time on the road, playing these songs every night and refining them. I can’t even imagine how good they’re going to sound once they’re finally recorded.
I missed this band when they came through town a year ago, and I regretted it immediately. Now I regret it even more, having seen them fully live up to their potential on stage. But at least I got a chance to rectify my error, and now I know not to miss them again.
