Dark Dreamers

I saw Joseph Arthur at The Triple Door last night, and below is what I observed. Most of the pictures were taken by E.

Chicago has the grungy Double Door while Seattle has the fancy Triple Door. Kind of ironic, huh?

Triple Door shares their kitchen with the enchanting and gustatory Wild Ginger. The gen-y servers dress in black, looking like hipster-beatniks. As soon as we place our orders, our lovely server inputs them into her fancy electronic order-book gadget. We sit at rows of tables that parallel the stage. Tea lights flicker at every couple seats.

On stage, red velvet curtains accent the starry backdrop.

When I ask who the opening act is, E tells me that it’s a female version of Joseph Arthur. Let’s see: tall and lanky, long black hair, sunglasses, guttural?

I’m never sure what I’m going to get from the opening act. If it’s someone brand new, the best I can hope for is mediocre. I am happy for that person, perhaps they’ll go far some day; but then I forget about them the next day. At every concert, I hope that I don’t have to suffer as much as I did for Eisley, who opened for Coldplay.

The lights dim.

Pleasant Melancholy

A blond pixie walks on stage. Rolled-up jeans, converse sneakers, no socks, and a black pea coat. She looks small on stage against the purple and red stars.

She has a lovely clear, low, somniferous voice. I am not suffering.

“I like her!” I proclaim after the first song. Duh. “I knew you would.” E says.

“How are you?” She asks the audience. “It’s looks very nice out there.”

She quietly sets her iPod to the next song’s accompaniment—how JosephArthuresque.

Her name is Anna Ternheim, and she’s from Stockholm.

Her songs are beautiful and sad.

“Do you want a song about stalking or a song about obsessive love?” Obsessive love wins. It’s called Bridges.

“Here’s a happy song about love. It’s called Terrified.”

She tells us that she packed for 2 weeks and is running out of clean clothes. “So I bought this new coat!” The audience fashionistas root their approval. “You have fancy stores here.”

Her slow, quiet cover of Little Lies (Tell me lies tell me sweet little lies) is an entirely different song from the original. She brings a heaviness to the lyrics that I never picked up on before.

Some of her other song titles are Girl Laying Down, Such a Lonely Soul, and Rain.

A blond melancholy pixie.

She has raised the opening-act bar sky high.

Spaceman

Joseph Arthur is the somber artist-type that you had a crush on in college. His guitar sports art of his own. He wears sunglasses even though this is an inside venue. A talented introvert.

He’ll peer out from under his sunglasses at the end of the fifth song. “I wanted to make sure people were here. Sometimes they just play a tape of people applauding.”

The guitar is so pretty in A Smile that Explodes and accompanies his sometimes raw voice well. The song smoothly transitions into Honey and the Moon. It inspires the image of a young couple breaking up.

If you weren’t real I would make you up now…but right now, the sun is trying to kill the moon

We’ve got too much time to kill, like pigeons on my windowsill we hang around

If you ever need a good breakup song, that’s the one.

He has removed his glasses by now.

Joseph dedicates Redemption’s Son to Hillary. Who is Hillary? Clinton?

His voice has quite the range. Invisible Hands starts out very low. Anna Ternheim joins him. Her mic doesn’t seem to be working. She holds her hands up to question the sound guy, then joins Joseph at his mic. Their duet is raw and sweet.

An Intimate Conversation between Joseph Arthur and The Audience

“Hey don’t tell New York I said this, but Seattle is the best.” Fans return the love with woots, applause, and various shouts of “We love you Joe!”

One guy says “This ain’t The Croc, is it?” This is where I first saw Joseph Arthur. We stood right in front of the stage–I could almost peek beneath his glasses, but I didn’t want to make him nervous.

“It’s really nice here.” Joseph replies. “I don’t even mind you all eatin’.” He tunes his guitar, then, “They’re supplyin’ us with a little somethin’ back there. But I appreciate the offer, it’s very kind. …How’s it sound? Does it sound alright?” The audience replies positively.

“I know my guitar is distorting, is that okay or should I turn it down?” He is probably asking a sound guy, but since he said it through the mic, the audience implies that it’s perfect. “Anybody got any special requests?” Everyone shouts theirs all at once. “You all gotta calm down. All I hear is WAAA-AAA!” “I don’t got a song called WAAAA-AAAA!’”

He finally hears a request for Nuclear Daydream.

The days when I would die for you are now gone.

Some guy shouts out “We like you!” He likes that. “Like you can count on. Love turns to hate. …Although I can deal with love too, I love it.”

E and I barely realize that the show has gone into overtime.

Apparently his guitar isn’t doing what he wants it to. So he puts it down and picks up Anna’s guitar. “Anna!” someone tries to warn her. The strap is slightly shorter. Someone says something off-mic and he replies “She is great, huh?”

He announces his record coming out September 30, called Temporary People. He also announces that the recording of this concert is for sale after the show. “Just saying.”

We get to participate in a “revolutionary sing-a-long.” But first he plays History in response to an impromptu request. I love his voice in this song while E comments on how out of tune the guitar is. He contemplates that “it probably isn’t used to being played that hard.”

Joseph says “Yeah, well if you ever get on stage and you’re playing a song and your guitar is really out of tune, just play it really hard. That’s what I just discovered right now. …It’s not as good as an in-tune guitar, but it’s like second best.”

The sing-a-long is called One by One. The reason why it’s a revolution is because the audience-chorus is a background to his lyrics. He teaches us our line.

“…but really loud, think like Pink Floyd in The Wall. It really gets weird…you know The Wall—that’s what it is in my head.” Laughs.

He then starts the song.

Smile when the camera holds you with its evil eye

It’s our turn: One by one, they turn black

You’re singing and listening. You focus on your part while listening to Joseph’s lyrics. There are some beautiful voices in the audience, too. My ears tune in to at least three different things at once. He thanks us to indicate that we’re done, to which we totally self-congratulate ourselves (yes we do).

It’s time for the last song.

All the old heroes are like children to you now, as you come to burn their shame away

In death I have seen you before

Encore

After the show, we line up for Anna Ternheim and Joseph Arthur CDs and autographs.

Downstairs, two women talk about her converse sneakers without the socks “She’s so cute!” Another has taken the Anna Ternheim poster down that was hanging in the ladies room.

Joseph Arthur seems smitten too. When someone compliments him on the show, he says “That’s because I have to keep up with Anna.”

This turned out to be Joseph Arthur’s “favorite gig of the tour.” E also thought that this was his best gig, and he’s been to quite a few. He was out of his shell more and didn’t do as much futzing with the electronic stuff. He is very real and quite funny.

I take a picture of E with him, who tells Joseph: “I’ve been a fan since album one.” “Alright!”

More pictures here.

More info about the Seattle show and some great links here.