El Perro Del Mar and Taken By Trees @ The Mod Club

Currently, my time five favourite female vocalists of the moment are as follows:

1. Joanna Newsom
2. Sarah Assbring
3. Victoria Bergsman
4. Basia Bulat
5. Traceyanne Campbell

The fact that I had the opportunity to see numbers two and three on the same night was one that had me feeling an immeasurable amount of elation, that was only magnified by the fact that I just saw number four last week and I'll be seeing my personal number one in a few short weeks at the Phoenix. (And yes I know that there are a lot of people that just don't get it when it comes to Ms. Newsom, but your collective disdain only draws me closer to her :))

Originally, I had read that Victoria Bergsman's Taken By Trees would be headlining the evening, which admittedly seemed a bit odd to me since her style has always struck me as significantly more subdued than Sarah Assbring's El Perro Del Mar, although both of them tend to tread on the more melancholic side of the fence. Interestingly it seemed that either my original sources were wrong, or the people behind the scenes simply changed their mind, since Taken By Trees was the one who kicked off the night. I quite enjoyed her 2007 release Open Field, although it's mellow vibe is not one I'm going to be listening to while driving late at night. Prior to the show, I still had yet to listen to her Bjorn Yttling-produced latest release East of Eden. The show had me regretting this, and as I'm listening to it now, I further regret not hopping aboard even sooner. It's an excellent album that is steeped in world sounds and beats that definitely gives it a different atmosphere than the last one. The show opened with a video presentation of her recent sojourn to Pakistan where she recorded the new album, and the influence of her surroundings was instantly apparent from the tribal sounds that emanated from the stage. Also emanating from the stage was the unmistakable scent of incense, which contributed greatly to the overall tone of the evening. She comes across as a bit of a shy personality in the sense that she didn't seem interested in hogging the spotlight or having any undue attention focused on her, even asking the lights to be turned down (which made for some unfortunately dark pictures.) Still, I was really blown away by the performance, with her modesty being one of great endearment. The songs that I did recognize from the first album, like Too Young, Lost and Found and the beautiful Only Yesterday, were also enhanced by the rhythm section and the new sounds that she recently discovered, creating versions of those songs that I personally feel surpassed even the originals. Unfortunately she didn't play her outstanding cover of Sweet Child O' Mine (not that I was honestly expecting her to), but she did play her cover of Animal Collective's My Girls, which was one of the evening's highlights.

Photos: My (shadowy) pictures of Taken By Trees @ The Mod Club are up on flickr
Myspace: Taken By Trees
Download: Anna mp3

Based on the comments made by people I know who had seen El Perro Del Mar in concert before, I was expecting to see a similarly laid back performance from her this evening. However as soon as the opening notes from Let Me In wafted through the air, it became obvious by the way that she danced onto the stage that this was not going to be the case. Sarah Assbring presented herself with great confidence that exuded an elegance that was a combination of late 60's Warhol-esque runway model and a mid 80's breakthrough performance on Top Of The Pops. Her latest album, Love Is Not Pop, showcases a slightly different sound for her as it presents her downtrodden lyricism with more streamlined near-pop sounds, that would not be out of place next to This Mortal Coil or Cocteau Twins. This almost dance infused new direction may have been exactly what was needed to nudge Ms. Assbring out of her shell, which resulted in a show that was wholly engaging. Almost everything was perfect about her performance. Her angular dance moves suited the almost gothic tones of her music, while her voice has never sounded more controlled, which is amazing when you consider that she already had some pretty amazing vocal control to start with. If there was one complaint, it was the fact that the sound system had the bass turned up way too high, to the point that some of those booming sounds were drowning out her beautiful vocals and the intricate melodies that they helped to complement. (The same problem was evident during Taken By Trees set as well.) That minor concern aside though, this was a memorable show for sure, with one of the best moments being her unexpected cover of The xx's Shelter, which sounded so convincing that one could be forgiven for assuming that this was one of her own compositions (which admittedly I did for the first minute or so as my brain was trying to piece together the familiarity of the song coupled with the fact that I was pretty sure her voice wasn't the one that I usually heard accompanying it. Then the chorus hit and I was all like "ahhh yah, now I know what this is!") By the time her 10 or 11 song set was finished, it was obvious by the applause, as well as the conversations that I had with others after the show, that this was her most impressive set to date. It was also nice to meet her briefly after the show, when I picked up a copy of Love Is Not Pop on vinyl, which she graciously signed for me, making it a special addition to my personal record collection.

Photos: My pics of El Perro Del Mar are now up on flickr.
Myspace: El Perro Del Mar
Download: Change Of Heart mp3