Swedish American Hall October 20, 2006 Review by Jake Thomas It’s like the Swedish American Hall was specifically built to house Damien Jurado’s voice – they fit together like peanut butter & chocolate, or porkchops & applesauce, or whatever food analogy you prefer. This outing found the man in the company of 2 additional musisicians, the same two that were with him when I saw Damien open up for Low at the Independent a while back. He informed the crowd part ways through the show that going, forward, he was no longer going to play solo and this would be the permanent band…which was fine by me, as everything sounded great both times I’ve seen this line-up. That was until he noted that it would also be the last time he played a number of his songs – most notably the more intimate numbers that dominate his early years (my favorite songs, in other words). This makes me sad beyond belief, thinking that this show was the last time I’ll ever hear “Ohio” or “Letters & Drawings”, not only two of Damien’s best songs, but for me personally “Ohio” is one of my all-time favorite songs ever. EVER. Here’s to hoping he goes back on his words or somehow works out full-band versions of these tracks, because they are much too important to just be lost to the wind. Despite this bit of bad news, the show was good as you’d expect – most of the material played was from his new album “And Now That I'm in Your Shadow”, and though I still haven’t bought this album it was instantly obvious that it is well worth investing in when the extra cash for it comes my way. |