like the world's tallest self-supporting tower
at least for a little while anyway"
(Great Lake Swimmers - 'Concrete Heart', 2009)
At about the same time last year, I listened to the Great Lake Swimmers' debut album a lot. It was a time dominated by two completely different states of mind: a deep enthusiasm for my work in a cinema and an equally deep frustration with life in Halle, where I was still living at the time. I was heavily flirting with Leipzig already, going there for concerts quite often and putting a lot of future hopes in the city. It is exactly these two emotions that come up to me again when I listen to the Great Lake Swimmers now. "Moving Pictures Silent Films" is the song I strongly relate to my cinematic obsession. I picture myself alone in the dark, bringing pictures to life and enjoying every minute of it. At the same time, I see myself listening to the album late at night, longing for a new city, new people, a place where I could find all that I missed in Halle, a place where maybe I had just lived for too long...
Yesterday the Great Lake Swimmers came to Leipzig, even better: to the place that happens to be my new cinema (but also a brilliant location for live concerts). So in a way, it all made sense: the music, the place, the atmosphere - it was like pieces of a puzzle coming together. The location was perfect for the sound of the band: a bit more powerful and dynamic in a live context without losing the spheric brilliance the songs have on the records. In fact, I was a bit afraid before the show that exactly this might happen. With a classic folk rock instrumentation (guitar, upright bass, banjo, piano and drums), there often is a certain risk of sounding too much like a traditional rock band when playing live. The very same thing happened to the support band Phosphorescent, who sounded a bit too conventional in a folk-rock-country sense for my taste. And it is certainly not riffs or folk rock clichées that I expect of the Great Lake Swimmers. What I love them for, and what I think is so special about them is their mellow, restrained but still intense sound - a spirit that is hard to preserve at a concert, where most people expect to rock. Luckily, the band did'n fall into that classical live trap. This was especially apparent when directly compared to their support band. Even though the songs sounded more straightforward than on record, this didn't destroy their atmosphere. Those low-key moments, the quiet, intensity, everything I like about this band was still there.
The songs from the new album "Lost Channels" made up the largest part of the set. My highlights: the simple but gorgeous "Still", with an extremely catchy melody and beautiful lyrics that precisely express my own attitude to life, and singer Tony Dekker's solo performance of "Concrete Heart" (a song he was commissioned to write for a project about Toronto architecture, as he told us), a gorgeous quiet song that confirmed what I've always thought: cities can be highly inspiring. Perhaps not surprisingly in this location, my personal wish was also fulfilled. When I listened to the band playing "Moving Pictures Silent Films" live in 'my' cinema, it was definitely a special, beautifully intense moment for me.
Also worth mentioning is Sharon van Etten, a very interesting Brooklyn songwriter who played as the first support act of the evening. I hadn't heard of her before, but her impressive live set (just her alone on electric guitar and singing) awakened my curiosity. I'm looking forward to hearing more of her in the future. All in all, I'm glad that last night I didn't only see a band that has meant a lot to me for a while, but discovered an excellent new musician as well.
P.S.: Thanks to Woodblock for the photo.
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