I would have never thought about putting Sam Beam of Iron & Wine and Calexico together in the same room, but if you think about it, it makes all the sense in the world. I don’t know too much about the new EP “In the Reins” other than Beam wrote the majority of the songs and had always wanted Calexico to play the songs with him. He originally wanted them to assist on his debut “The Creek Drank the Cradle”. The EP is a great collaboraive effort taking Beam’s whispery vocals and addind Calexico’s lively musical arrangements. The album helps take Beam further away from dreamy bedroom folk music to more energetic songs.
Although I would have preferred to see the performance in any other venue than Webster Hall, the sound didn’t seem to destroy the energy in the room. The show was sold out and the crowd was way more subdued than the previous time he came by. If anything, the crowd was TOO mellow. Nevertheless, the show rocked, having Calexico play first, then followed with a solo performance of Iron & Wine. Afterwards the 2 bands met up together to play the songs of “In the Reigns”. I enjoyed the songs better live than on disk. A treat was having a guest vocalst (don’t know his name) from Mexico to add more vocal punch to the set. They show was over 2 hours and worth every second.
The place was really crowded so I only got these few crappy pictures of the show.