Shearwater at The Earl, Atlanta, March 19, 2014

Shearwater at The Earl, March 19, 2014

March Madness is now in full swing.  Last night, Austin's Shearwater took the stage at The Earl.

Jesca Hoop opened.

I had heard a few Jesca Hoop songs before last night's show, but wasn't that familiar with her.  As her performance unfolded, a fascinating biography emerged - raised a strict Mormon, she broke away sometime in her teens to pursue a wilderness life off of the grid.  Eventually, she discovered songwriting and started performing, and now lives in Manchester, England, but cut her most recent album in LA before becoming a member of Shearwater's touring band.  However, before Shearwater took the stage, Hoop played a spellbinding solo set accompanied only by her own electric guitar and haunting voice.  The normally rowdy and noisy Earl was so quiet during her performance, you could have heard a pin drop - I was self-conscious by the barely audible "click" of my camera phone.

So that was cool.  I hadn't heard anything by or about the next band, Rhode Island's Death Vessel, before they took the stage, but based on their name expected black metal or at least droney stoner rock.

We got neither.  Instead, they played sweet folk rock, led by singer Joel Thibodeau's crooning soprano. Their songwriting was impeccable (Triangulated Heart was particularly memorable) and the sound mix was perfect.  A particularly nice touch was the quiet, little soundscapes they created between songs, using just a few chimes from a xylophone and a gentle bowed bass line to achieve near-ambient compositions as Thibodeau tuned his guitar for the next song.  At times, I was reminded a little of Fleet Foxes spin-off Poor Moon.

These guys are great.  Check them out.

So that was cool, too, and Shearwater, as always, was triumphant and magnificent.

By my count, this was the fifth time we've seen Shearwater play. We saw them at The Earl way back in November 2010, and then saw a reformulated version of the band at The Earl on Leap Year Day, 2012. In addition to those shows, we saw them open for St. Vincent at Variety Playhouse and for Dinosaur Junior on the same stage.  Five times, and every one was a delight.

This version of Shearwater was different than the last several concerts, most notably for the inspired addition of Jesca Hoop on keyboards, percussion and backing vocals.    

But as always, a Shearwater performance is basically The Jonathan Meiburg Show, and he did not disappont last night.  The band has a new album out, Fellow Travelers, of covers by bands they've toured with, and while they played one or two songs from the new album, they relied heavily on songs from 2012's superb Animal Joy, most notably the title track, Breaking the Yearlings, and You As You Are.

As at most Atlanta concerts by the band, Meiburg's parents, who live here in town, were in attendance.  The set closed with A Song for the Minotaur, and then, for some reason, a perfectly-executed cover of Roxy Music's Virginia Plane.  I have an MP3 somewhere of Shearwater covering Eno's Baby's On Fire (from roughly the same period of time and similar location in the glam-rock universe), so they're obviously fans of 1970s British art-house pop. At this rate, I wouldn't be surprised to hear them perform a complete, note-by-note cover of Fripp & Eno's No Pussyfooting.

So, what a night!  A thrilling but intimate performance by Jesca Hoop, a new discovery of a great band, Death Vessel, and a chance to check in with Meiburg and see what he's been up to lately with Shearwater.