Sparklehorse w.Jesse Sykes and the Sweet Hereafter @ The Mod Club

Thanks to the kind folks over at Chromewaves.net, I won tickets to see Sparklehorse with Jesse Sykes & The Sweet Hereafter at the Mod Club last night. Unbelievable show!

Jesse Sykes & The Sweet Hereafter are an alt-country-ish band from Seattle that have been receiving quite a bit of buzz lately. Her mega-husky voice was in full form as she played mostly cuts from her third release, “Life, Love, Lust and the Open Halls of the Soul” and I really admired the way that she seemed to pour out huge wails of emotion into every song. Being relatively new to her music, I really didn’t know what to expect, but the fact that guitarist Paul Wandscher was in Whiskeytown was definitely a huge selling point for me. And I could certainly hear that influence. The setlist was a mix of whisky-stained bawlers and a couple of more upbeat tunes. Her demeanor was very gracious and when she stated that “I realize that most of you don’t know me…” it didn’t come across as mock humility.

Download:
LLL mp3

Jesse Sykes & the Sweet Hereafter myspace
Purchase “Life, Love, Lust and the Open Halls of the Soul” here. You can also stream the entire CD there as well.

Check out the pictures I took of Jesse Sykes & the Sweet Hereafter on my flickr page.

Meanwhile, I think Sparklehorse is my new favourite band. Mark Linkous has spent the last few years battling his share of personal rivalries in the form of substance abuse, alcoholism and the like. He apparently dislikes performing but it didn’t show last night as he was very kind to the enthusiastic audience, even occasionally mugging for the cameras. The playing was exceptionally tight, especially when playing some of the rockier numbers like “It’s Not So Hard” and “Pig”. I don’t believe I’ve ever heard a setlist that flowed quite like the one he chose for this show. The heavier numbers all seemed to come in right when we needed it most and the mellower songs were steeped in so much atmosphere that they came to life in ways that, although still excellent on CD, just made them even more impactful (is that a word?) in a live setting. I loved it when they performed “Don’t Take My Sunshine Away.” What a great great song! I think I’ll definitely be listening to a lot of their music this week.

Stream:
You can stream several tracks including the excellent “Don’t Take My Sunshine Away” on the myspace page.

Purchase “Dreamt For Light Years In The Belly Of A Mountain” at Amazon.ca.

Check out my pictures of Sparklehorse over on flickr.