Kirstiecat | Blog

10/5/07
Schubas Tavern in Chicago

About this exact time last October, I was seeing Nina Nastasia open for José González at the Lakeshore Theater. Though I like José’s music quite a bit, I felt a little cheated that I couldn’t see a full set of Nina Nastasia, a woman I’m sure you could spend several days listening to and never quite fathom. It’s been a long while of waiting for Nina and since then, she has released an album with Jim White, member of Australia’s Dirty Three entitled You Follow Me. This album has just as many stark moments as her four previous releases which recall in many ways a darker tinged American South instead of a NYC artist, where she lives now, or a musician from California, where Nina was born. Nina played a nicely varied set with songs from previous albums though more concentration on the recent one. And, of course, we were all treated to some endearing Nina banter midway through the set so that we might guess what Nina is like outside of her songs.

There’s something that makes one feel altogether lost when you listen to Nina. You feel small in an immense world. It’s not exactly pastoral but you can picture yourself walking alone through a thick wood and the trees singing these songs (especially when no one is around.) As I mentioned earlier, You Follow Me has many moments that hold up with her past material and some of these lyrics can cut you rather acutely. Nina brings them out a bit live and with her actual presence, such lyrics as “I knew we were the only ones here. Not one car passed us on the street” on the song “I’ve Been Out Walking” or “I always dreamed of the day I would bury you. I never thought of the day I’d stop hating you. On an altar you look smaller” from “The Day I Would Bury You.” You have the sense you are witnessing something very rare when you see Nina live and, in many ways, it’s hard to explain exactly what this means. Regardless, it always feels memorable and something that sinks in to become a part of you. It’s clear that her growing fan base agrees with this close sentiment as well. Just two years ago on September 6th, 2005, she had played Schubas to an audience of about 50 while Friday night’s show sold out completely. No doubt Jim White, whose drum playing worked well with Nina’s vocals and acoustic guitar, despite the fact that it still felt sparse yet somehow calculated as if they had worked out just the right amount of playing. However, my guess is that as Nina has released more albums, the number of people that have discovered and connected with them has increased because Nina is unique and in her bleak bareness is the hopeful idea that we can all feel and remember certain experiences in a way that brings them to a new level of understanding.

As with Shakespeare, Nina’s dark insightful lyrics were tempered with some comic relief. Nina endearingly rambled for awhile about a job she had answering phones, which she suggested was the one other thing she could do. She worked in an office where there was a Boston phone and a New York phone and she was only supposed to answer the New York line or the person on the other end would think she was from Boston. After working there for only a short period of time, she received a call from someone who complimented her profusely to the point where she was completely taken off guard. As she set down the phone, however, she noticed that she had accidentally picked up the Boston phone and the person who had been on the other end thought she was someone completely different.

It’s true I could have listened to Nina sing and talk about her life all night and I would have preferred a whole evening (or several days) with Nina. The one real regret I had seeing her Friday night was that she didn’t play for much longer than an hour including an encore. However, Nina did play many of my favorite songs (though unfortunately not my absolute favorite of hers, “All Your Life” off of Dogs) and, though this is the third time I had seen her, I certainly hope she comes back again soon. Perhaps next time, she could play an early and a late show…

View the complete photoset on flickr

Listen to Nina Nastasia on myspace

Setlist:

This entry was posted on Monday, October 8th, 2007 at 4:37 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.