Review – JBM and Sondre Lerche at The Parish

Although New York-dwelling singer-songwriters JBM and Sondre Lerche may have kicked off their tour in Texas in hopes of escaping wintry northern weather, they were out of luck when they came to Austin on February 3 – it was cold and rainy, the worst of combinations.  Still, these gentlemen brought the love for the “Live Music Capital” and completely wowed an appreciative, full crowd at The Parish.

Anticipation for Norwegian Lerche’s appearance was already rife when JBM (the touring name of musician Jesse B. Marchant) took the stage at 9pm; you could tell by the giggly, almost-hysteric excited chatter all around.  So when Marchant’s unfamiliar-to-most figure entered the scene, applause was slow to start and somebody even half-shouted, “I don’t know your name!”  This wasn’t a problem for long.  About halfway into Marchant’s opening acoustic guitar-only piece, “Years,” the room was quiet, and when he flowed seamlessly into “Cleo’s Song,” you really could have heard a pin drop.  His voice, reminiscent of Jim James’, echoed in the room with near-heavenly impact.  JBM keeps his eyes closed during his performances, like he is pulling these songs out from deep, personal places in his heart and mind.  The lyrics add to this impression – for example, in his third song, “Going Back Home,” the little, sad line, “The faces I see, the friends I don’t keep” is a brutal admission breathed quietly over melancholy chords.  For his fourth song, just in case there were any jaws not resting on the floor, Marchant moved to his seat behind a bass drum and cymbal-tambourine setup, and proceeded to pick out a pattern on his electric guitar whilst accompanying himself on the rhythmic instruments and singing.  Talk about coordination – one can only imagine the hours spent practicing in order to pull this off as effortlessly as JBM did.  The Parish’s atmosphere made everything more epic, as Marchant himself noted:  “This is my first show with a smoke machine.”  Marchant added more heartache to “In A Different Time” with his harmonica, but then tossed it aside to switch back behind the drums for “No Matter if the Rain,” which gave a sense that you were his friend, standing around his living room while he showed you a few things he’d written.  There was candidness to his movements, and shyness to his stage presence that made the music all the more personal.  For his final song, Marchant pulled one more trick from his bag:  he recorded different looped guitar parts on his pedals to accompany himself in performing “From Me to You and You to Me.”  I’ve seen this done a number of times now, but it bears repeating that the fearlessness of JBM’s performance in itself is breathtaking.  He lays down parts so quickly, it would seem he doesn’t even need to think – his fingers just take him along on a musical journey.  Another lyrical standout that immediately tugged at my heart was the line, “Feeling free don’t come cheap anymore.”  A melancholy thought to ruminate on, to be sure.  Yet, by the end of Marchant’s set, it seemed the audience was all smiles at having participated in such a gorgeous and captivating musical experience.  Let’s hope this Canadian-cum-New Yorker heads down south more often.

When Sondre Lerche entered the scene a little after 10, there was a collective swoon throughout the audience.  It’s always interesting to hear Lerche’s songs live, because they are almost always super-stripped, just Lerche and his guitars, which is basically the opposite of his lush, orchestral arrangements on record.  Yet, though it’s just Lerche’s voice and fingers bringing the rawk, he still manages to fill the space with his tunes.  This is likely due to a combination of things:  Lerche is a talented guitar player, and has complete control over his sweet, soaring voice.  Most of all, he plays with an indefatigable energy, at times bubbly and, when needed, heavy.  He is a performer in every sense, and a joy to watch.

Lerche opened with “Good Luck,” the first track off of 2009’s Heartbeat Radio.  Within the first verse of the song, a girl standing behind me whispered to a friend, “He’s giving me goosebumps!”  The intensity Lerche threw into the song was so great that he broke a string by its end, which prompted JBM to save the day by charging onstage and taking away the bum acoustic for repair.  In the meantime, Lerche drew from 2007’s Phantom Punch with “Airport Taxi Reception.”  For the instrumental break near the middle of the song, Lerche ripped at his strings, picking out a pattern at breakneck-speed, and when he finally neared the end of this epic breakdown a guy in the crowd gasped exhaustively, “Oh my God!” to great laughter and applause – we could all understand his astonishment.  Slowing it down a bit, Lerche crooned on “I Guess It’s Gonna Rain Today.”  Without the strings, the song became a sweet, simple lovesick poem for the audience; appropriate lyrical content, too!  “Two Way Monologue” induced on of the louder sing-alongs, although voices throughout the crowd could be heard joining Lerche’s on every song.  The audience was very forthcoming with their adoration of Lerche, like on “Heartbeat Radio” when he proposes, “Tell me what you think about this song” – cheers, whistles and applause abounded.  Lerche wasn’t too shy to romance the crowd, either.  “(You Knocked Me) Off My Feet” was played tenderly, with earnestness, and had a dreamy 50s-prom flair as it swayed and swirled around our ears.  Lerche’s sweetest intentions seemed somewhat foiled by his earlier string break – his guitar went out of tune just in time for his solo, and an exasperated “God damn it!” passed his lips as he quickly tuned up.  Picking up the pace again, he led us through the opening track on his very first album, Faces Down.  “Dead Passengers” led Lerche’s silky-smooth voice through a gentle melody, but the force with which he slammed his strings during another instrumental solo could be felt down to your bones; it wasn’t violent, simply explosive.  “My Hands Are Shaking” off of the soundtrack to Dan In Real Life made it into the set, and after the crowd began begging for particular tunes.  Someone in the back yelled, “Born in the USA!” which led Lerche to wax poetic on what a great song that is.  He cut himself off and, with the air of a school teacher, instructed his class, “Alright, let’s move on.”  A fan at Lerche’s Dallas show asked him to play “Single-Hand Affairs,” a bitter tune from the EP Don’t Be Shallow, and though he hadn’t performed the song “in years,” he played it with accuracy and honesty.  Lerche rounded out his pre-encore set with “Sleep On Needles,” a personal all-time favorite.  The song opens with the verse, “Ask me anything you like/I’ll reveal everything.”  It’s a blunt offer, almost sung as a dare, and it fits the heavier mood of the song.  It’s a love song, but it’s sung as a lover’s quarrel; there is frustration at the song’s recipient in only the way people in a close relationship share frustration.  It kept the room’s energy high so that, mere moments after Lerche bounded off the stage, he was pulled right back by needy fans.  He posed the question, “Would you like to rock, or would you like to mope?”  As the crowd reached a consensus, Lerche laughed as he mimicked, “Mope!!! Mope!!! I wanna mope!!!”  He obliged and sang the Phantom Punch depressant, “Tragic Mirror.”  Finishing the night was a crowd-participatory version of “Modern Nature,” as a choir of fairly accurate voices took over Lillian Samdal’s duet part.

During the show, Lerche admitted to the crowd that, having moved to America from Norway, for a while he didn’t have a lot of close friends in the states, so he’d just go around before shows asking random people to be placed on his guest lists.  He was happy to announce that, for this show, he finally had friends in Austin to put on his list.  Based on Lerche’s talent, charisma, good-natured personality and humility, I’d wager he’ll have a long list of friends across the country by tour’s end.

test Filed under Music, Reviews | Tags: Austin, JBM, Jesse B. Marchant, Jesse Marchant, Sondre Lerche, The Parish | Comment (0)