Before kicking off a string of tour dates, Brooklyn-by-way-of-Athens band Phosphorescent booked a last minute show at the tiny C Boy’s Heart and Soul venue on South Congress. It seems that kicking off a tour with an impromptu show in Austin is becoming something of a trend, and we aren’t complaining one bit. C Boy’s reached capacity just 15 minutes after the doors opened last night, and the crowd soon surrounded the only-slightly-elevated stage, chatting for the next hour and a half before the five-piece band, under the direction of creative force Matthew Houck, took the stage. Before getting started, Houck graciously thanked Dead Oceans label owner Phil Waldorf (a true hero) and dedicated the set to Waldorf’s wife Dylan for the occasion of her birthday.
Phosphorescent occupies those sleepy, weepy hours between the time the bars close and the sun comes up. These shirts aren’t just untucked, they’re unbuttoned, frayed, and stained with a week’s worth of beer and sweat. Some nights you’re passing out on a floor alone, and some nights you’re waking up wrapped in sheets next to a gorgeous woman, but the pain inside is always about the same. She doesn’t know what she’s getting into. All the beautiful creatures know that a lion is a dangerous beast, but the unassuming lamb can be just as perilous. Nothing but trouble in that boyish grin.
Houck hunches over his guitar, swaying like a precariously balanced stack of empty pint glasses. The ensemble of pedal steel, percussive instruments, full drum kit, guitar, and bass bolsters his whisky-soaked truths. The band treats the lucky attendees to songs spanning their discography, including Pride‘s “A Picture of our Torn Up Praise,” Here’s to Taking It Easy‘s “Los Angeles,” as well as “Ride On / Right On” and crowd pleaser “Song for Zula” both from last year’s stellar effort Muchacho. They even reach all the way back to Aw Come Aw Wry for an epic, sprawling, all-out-rocking rendition of “Dead Heart.” Houck and co. also treat us to two excellent covers: Vern Gosdin’s “Any Old Miracle” and, appropriately, Willie Nelson’s “Reasons to Quit,” both numbers they’ve been known to perform.
For the encore, before the full band emerges, Houck returns for a solo rendition of “Cocaine Lights” that ends in swirling vocals run through loop pedals. What begins as harmonies eventually transform into painful howls as Houck drags us down some rabbit hole of drug-addled regret moaned into a microphone. Phosphorescent possesses the ability to create a mood like few other acts. They fall deep into their grooves, plodding along unhurriedly, and no one seems to mind. It makes the explosions of cacophony all the more desirable. The band escorts us through the dwindling Monday hours toward the pre-dawn darkness of Tuesday. One more round; one more dance. A few more minutes. If I can rest my head on this shoulder just a little longer. Sing these drunken choruses with me as I drift off to sleep.
Photos from the night below © Bryan C. Parker & Pop Press International; all rights reserved. Click any image to open in slideshow viewer.
