My Brightest Diamond, with Clare and the Reasons, at The Rio, in Santa Cruz, on 11/24/08
This is the second time this year I've seen My Brightest Diamond, but that's okay because they're really good. I discovered their inherent goodness the first time I saw them back at Villa Montalvo in Saratoga, when they headlined over Noe Venable. Actually, I figured out that I liked them by googling their name before the show. Myspace and Youtube kind of take the mystery out of going to gigs because in a matter of seconds I can hear and see just about anything. Long gone are the days of xeroxed fanzines being the best source of information on upcoming bands/shows.
At that last show, I bumped into my old friend Acrofish (check out his photos of the show - they came out much better than mine did), who promptly picked me up and turned me upside down. I hadn't seen him in years at that point. For this show, we went together, which was nice. He'd seen My Brightest Diamond and Clare and the Reasons a couple of nights before at the Swedish American Hall in San Francisco, so I got a general idea from him about what to expect from this gig. My Brightest Diamond for the evening were to be a string trio backing Shara Worden on guitar and vocals (last time, they'd been much more "rock" sounding), and he said that Clare and the Reasons were good, but perhaps a little too "disney" sounding.
The Rio Theater is an old-style movie theater now given over to live performances. In the past, I've seen performances both on the main stage (Chirgilchin) and in the lobby (In Gowan Ring and Whysp). Tonight's performance, as expected, was on the main stage, but it being a Monday night, the gig proved to be somewhat sparsely attended.
Clare Muldaur, along with her Reasons, urged the audience to come fill the landing strip sized space between the front row of theater seats and the stage. A bunch of us complied. Their sound proved to be very lush, with violin, viola, cello, and guitar. As Acrofish had warned, her voice was high and sweet, sort of like something one might hear in a Disney film (of course, the same could be said of Noe Venable, who opened last time around). Generally I like this kind of music to sound more mournful, but I did appreciate the music on some levels. Especially fun was multi-instumentalist Olivier Manchon (and Clare's husband, I just found out), who, in addition to violin, played the musical saw, did magic tricks, and simultaneously played the recorder and a xylophone (or was it a glockenspiel?). There was a certain old-world charm to the proceedings, and looking at the cover artwork of their cds and other paraphernalia, it became obvious that this charm is definitely part of their aesthetic. As apparently is the color red.
My Brightest Diamond proved to be Shara Worden and the Reasons, minus Clare. The Reasons had changed out of their red costumes and into something a little more subdued. Shara Worden had feathers in her hair again. She played a lot of the same songs she'd played last time, but with radically different arrangements. Gone was the loud rock element, replaced by gentle strings. It worked equally well. I'm still not familiar enough with individual song titles to list songs played, but they performed songs from "Bring Me the Workhorse" and "A Thousand Shark's Teeth", as well as a few other odds and ends. The arrangements were blissful, with just the right combination of melancholy and quirkiness. Shara's voice, of course, was incredible, reminding me again of singers like Mia Doi Todd and Dawn McCarthy. The audience was even treated to a puppet show, which is something one doesn't often get at musical events.
My camera kind of sucks in poor light conditions, but I think I got an ineresting effect on this one. It looks like Shara is holding a transparent parasol, but it's actually one of those plastic, toy soundmakers that produce different notes depending on how fast you swing them. You're looking at the high note here.
Charming. It was charming, I tell you.
