Gig: AC Newman

AC Newman

Lee's Palace. Wednesday, March 11, 2009.

 

Making plans with R. beforehand,  we decided, on the available evidence, to take a pass on ukulele guy and meet for a pre-gig cup of tea instead. Walked across the street and got in at just the right time - not having to wait around too long, but still finding a good spot. A good-sized crowd, but the place wasn't packed.

Taking a break from his usual supergroup, Newman has created what is essentially another one. The band came on seven deep, and included Jon Wurster (Superchunk) on drums, Shane Nelkin (The Awkward Stage) on guit/keyb and Miranda Brown (Crooked Fingers) on bass. Plus a siren-y redhead (Tara Szczygielski) on violin to fulfil the siren-y redhead quota. And topped off with the backing vox of Nicole Atkins - why wasn't she opening?

The band played a short-ish but focused set (on stage at 10:30, and I was on the subway platform afterwards at 11:45) which was just the right length to showcase the tunes without overstaying their welcome. The bulk came from Get Guilty, with a handful from '04's The Slow Wonder tossed in ("Drink to Me, Babe, Then" was given a particularly effective treatment). Overall, the band was tight and had a very good energy, bringing nuances to the songs and improving on several over their recorded versions. Some of Newman's more interesting work - on Get Guilty as well as the N.P.'s Challengers disc - has come with taking the foot off the accellerator a bit, and the highlight of the set came with "The Changeling" and "Submarines of Stockholm" back to back, filled with the shine of A.M. Gold -- like E.L.O. fronted by Terry Jacks.

Carl was, as always, a witty banterer on stage, pausing to mockingly take Sloan to task ("those guys have had it in for me since 1995!") for scheduling a gig in town on the same night as him, as well as riffing on comments from the crowd. The band, sadly, went unintroduced, perhaps so as not to distract the credit from Newman in his "solo" mode. But it was good enough that there's plenty of credit to spread around.

All told, a good show and home at a semi-decent hour.