Kirstiecat | Blog

6/1/07
South Union Arts

For those people familiar with Phil Elvrum, the singer songwriter responsible for The Microphones and Mount Eerie, last Friday was really quite a treat. It was also my first visit to South Union Arts, an eleven mile southside trip I made by bike in the dark pouring rain, which somehow added to the mood. And though I got a flat on the way back, it somehow didn’t make me as depressed as it should have after such a great set. I believe that’s because somehow the life experiences that form us like an equation are what Phil Elvrum is basically all about. And while I listened to his sometimes dreamy and yet utterly human qualities shine through, I couldn’t help feel the strange irony of the fact of the neon cross of Jesus Christ hanging in a venue that is half music and half religion for the cult following that Phil Elvrum draws is certainly something that touches on the spiritual.

I had seen Phil play before a few years back at Open End Gallery and this was much more straight ahead, playing acoustic songs electrically as opposed to looping instrumentation back and forth. His mood was interactive and seemed to change a little. At times, he appeared vulnerable or even with a seriousness in his demeanor and at other times, he was really at ease telling his own life stories. At one point, he rambled about Norway in the middle of the song for what must have been a good ten minutes and about his experience of renting a cabin there and melting ice.

He also seemed rather spontaneous and open to suggestion from the audience regarding the setlist and did not seem to have any plans regarding the songs (he had not written any song titles down that I saw either.) He intermixed songs both from Mount Eerie and Microphones material. Towards the end of the set, he had the audience sing a chorus of Bjork’s “Undo” singing “It’s not meant to be a strife. It’s not meant to be a struggle.” That’s when I felt the most sense of spirituality as the light from the cross above seemed to glow. I’m not saying Phil Elvrum is Jesus or anything. I’m just saying music sometimes has a way of making you feel a part of something and complete.

View the complete photoset on flickr

This entry was posted on Thursday, June 7th, 2007 at 5:32 pm and is filed under music. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.