Iron & Wine @ Birmingham Town Hall, 10th March 2011
As far as venues go the Town Hall in Birmingham is going to rank highly with its beautiful architecture and acoustics, I can’t think of a better or more suited place for tonight’s performance from Iron and Wine which is the brainchild of one Sam Beam and this tour is in support of their fourth album Kiss Each Other Clean.
The softly spoken Daniel Martin Moore kicks the evening off in fine form, his blend of indie-folk washes over the Birmingham crowd in a beautiful wave of music. It not all about the music though as the evening takes a serious note as he informs us on the dangers of flyrock mining and it’s impact on the environment and people’s lives. It’s put across very eloquently and it’s evidently something he feels very strongly about, it all builds up to the Flyrock Blues, a song he wrote about it.
There are bands for whom the live setting is by far the best way to experience them and this is definitely the case for Iron and Wine, as good as the songs are on record they are given an extra dimension live making them even more special. The man behind Iron and Wine Sam Beam is joined on stage by 7 backing band members, among them 2 percussionists, 1 sax come flute player, a keyboardist, another on guitar, a bassist and a female backing singer.
They open with the funky sounds of Boy With a Coin, it’s sounds amazing and the appreciative crowd lap it up. Sam Beam may be nursing a cold but you would be hard pushed to notice as each song receives rapturous applause from the otherwise relatively quiet audience. He jokes with the crowd saying that the can dance if they want, and makes sure to include all those with seated tickets waving to each section. When an audience member shouts out “that was bostin’” after a song the poor guy looks a little confused, it’s obvious he’s not quite down with the phrase but it raises a few laughs from the audience. Hopefully someone will be able to explain to him what the phrase actually means!
Iron and Wine play a varied set, a nice mix of the old and new, Pagan Angel & a Borrowed Car and Tree by the River sound great. The female vocals compliment Sam Beams perfectly and the saxophonist takes the songs to another level with his jazz stylings he is obviously a talented musician which shows when he goes into a sax solo in one of the songs, its mesmerising stuff. As Sam Beam announces the last song he jokingly tells the audience once again to “Settle down’ as they head into Walking Far From Home another new song off the latest album. The band leaves the stage to applause that rings out across the room and continues for at least a minute. An encore beckons and the crowd is treated to one more song as Sam Beam and just four members of his band stroll back on the stage for a stripped down version of Me & Lazurus, it’s a intimate end to a wonderful show. Sam Beam thanks the crowd, ‘We got through this together’, that we did.
The Town Hall is a beautiful venue and the fact that its not utilised more for gigs is a travesty. There are so many bands that would be perfectly suited for this venue, the likes of Death Cab for Cutie, Bon Iver and City and Colour to name a few and hopefully one day they will book more artists like these to play this majestic building.
Review – Hannah Sebestjanowicz
Photos – Steve Gerrard