Monday night at Holy Mountain featured a Secretly Canadian double header with SC artist and Bon Iver member S. Carey headlining, and SC sister label Dead Oceans artist White Hinterland offering support. In addition, one of our all-time favorites, Dana Falconberry, opened the night to complete what was undoubtedly the best bill a Monday in Austin has seen in some time. The room at Holy Mountain was relatively full, but with the show falling on a weeknight and the torrential rain that moved through right around show-o-clock, I was expecting a slightly larger crowd. Those who missed the show should feel the sting of regret as each band throughout the night offered a truly incredible performance.
S. Carey’s songs are elegant and beautiful; they possess the same quiet power found in songs by Bon Iver, a band in which he is a member. It seems that being a resident of Eau Claire, Wisconsin manifests itself within music in a particular way. And it makes sense; in these songs you can feel winter stretching on for what seems like an eternity, hear water dripping as the snow softly melts, see the green buds of life at the onset of spring.
Despite the fact that S. Carey’s music feels even-keel and static on record, the band offered a dynamic live show, which featured Carey moving from keys to a standing drum position and adding tom, snare, and symbols to the existing full kit. In this way, the arrangements on several songs swelled cacophonously and elicited wild applause from the crowd upon their completion. In diverse arrangements, S. Carey and his band displayed both restraint and strength and kept the audience visibly enrapt.
Just last week, we gave White Hinterland’s new album Baby a glowing review, and had been greatly looking forward to her show, which did not disappoint. Onstage, White Hinterland, aka Casey Dienel, has an intimate immediacy in the way she speaks to the audience. With her voice as the primary instrument in all the songs, she doesn’t hide behind any sonic textures or appear uncomfortable. Instead, she belts out song after song with complete resolution and confidence.
Dienel uses loop pedals to create live renditions of the songs as she goes, showcasing an impressive ability for improvisation. Often, even with musicians experienced in using loop pedals, awkward downtime emerges between moments when the artist is recording to a loop or transitioning between sections of songs. However, Dienel seems to have this down to a science; although the listener is aware that the song is being added to and built upon, it feels full from the beginning, rather than merely skeletal. White Hinterland is an excellent songwriter and performer, and if you have the opportunity, catching her show is highly recommended.
Dana Falconberry opened the night with a transcendent set of ethereal folk music. We’ve written about and seen Falconberry more times than we can count, but it never gets tiresome. This show held a particularly special treat, since the band debuted three entirely new songs that have never been played in public. One of those songs was “Palmless,” which we wrote about recently and which will about on the band’s new 12″ single to be released by Jim Eno’s Public Hi-Fi Records on Record Store Day, April 19th. The band has wrapped up recording for a full-length album that will see release in the indeterminate future. I, for one, can’t wait for the fog surrounded the details of that full-length to clear, since Falconberry’s last effort Leelanau was one of my favorite of the year.
Check out photos of the event below. All images © Bryan Parker & Pop Press International. Click any image to open in slideshow viewer.
