Duncan Sheik @ The Bell House, Brooklyn, NY
January 28th, 2009 - by Linda
I’d call myself a casual Duncan Sheik fan. I may have written about this in earlier posts, but I sort of missed out on the good ’90s music because I was more interested in the ’60s, and I had to play catch up later. Up until Spring Awakening, a musical for which Sheik wrote the music (Steven Sater wrote the lyrics), I had probably only heard “Barely Breathing.” Spring Awakening is one of my favorite contemporary musical scores, and since then I’ve been able to check out his other work, thanks to shared iTunes at work.
On Monday night, he played at The Bell House in Gowanus, Brooklyn, in what he called a “Whisper House record release extravaganza.” Whisper House is his latest album, released Tuesday (though technically it was available for purchase at the show), and it also has a musical narrative. During this concert, I went from casual to full-fledged fan and not necessarily because of the music (which I did love), but because he seemed so genuinely happy to be there. Many musicians enjoy themselves at concerts, but this seemed different, the way he smiled to himself after each song didn’t feel like part of the show, but as if he felt really fulfilled. His 7-piece mini-orchestra (as I thought of it) included cello, clarinet, and french horn, and the musicians seemed just as content, especially the cellist, Ben Kalb, who seemed to be really feeling the music.
Though I live in Brooklyn, I’ve never spent much time in Gowanus, and was a little worried I was in the wrong place as I tried to find The Bell House. There was nobody on the street and the buildings looked deserted, but once I made it to the venue, there were plenty of people inside. It’s a nice place with a huge bar in one room and then the concert space in another.
It was a general admission show, but seated, which I always appreciate because 1) I’m getting old and lazy and 2) I can hang my coat on my chair and not pay to check it. The audience was a pretty diverse Brooklyn crowd of various ages (well, 21 plus) and fashion sense. Judging from some of the conversations I overheard, most appeared to be fans of his before Spring Awakening. I imagine, but I could be wrong, if this was an all-ages venue in the middle of Manhattan on a weekend, there might be more of a teen following.
There was no opening act and though I was told he’d be going on at around 8, he didn’t go on until closer to 8:30. Guess I could have gotten dinner after all. He looks a bit scruffy now and could use a shave, but he seems like a loveable dorky guy, making jokes and then looking a little embarrased. At one point in the show he commented on how the audience seemed very mellow (it was true) and said, “Maybe somone should take off their clothes. It’s supposed to be a party.” When someone suggested he take off his clothes, he seemed to realize the mistake he made in bringing it up.
He opened with the lovely and simple “For You” from his 2002 album Daylight and played a few other older songs. He then said he was going to do some songs from a “really old musical” called Spring Awakening. He brought Lauren Pritchard up on stage, the original Ilse on Broadway. He was using a music stand throughout the show and said, “I won’t remember the words. You see, I didn’t write them.” Yet, he was also reading the lyrics for the songs he did write, but his memory problems were also endearing. The Spring Awakening songs got the loudest applause of any of the previous songs and the audience seemed to recognize the opening chords of “Don’t Do Sadness” immediately, so I guess there were more fans of the show present than I had thought.
Finally, he played a few songs from Whisper House. I was expecting/hoping that he would play the whole album, but alas, I’ll have to wait and see if it ever makes it to the stage. The story takes place during World War II and is about an 11-year-old boy, Christopher, whose father was killed and whose mother was sent to a sanitarium. He goes to live with his aunt in a lighthouse haunted by ghosts. The songs are performed by the ghosts to Christopher, but the backstory didn’t play a huge role in the songs presented in the concert.
I’m curious as to whether the show could work, but it’s difficult to judge only hearing a few songs and not entirely in context. In any case, I did enjoy the songs, especially “Better To Be Dead,” which opens the album. Keyboardist Holly Brook also shares the vocal work on these songs and her voice has an ethereal quality that lends itself to playing a ghost. Another standout song was “The Tale Of Solomon Snell,” an amusing yet macabre cautionary tale.
The last song was called “Take A Bow,” in which every character is reintroduced and take their bows in the show. The idea is that the audience can clap for each actor during that song and eliminate the need for a curtain call, which Sheik seemed very proud of. It’s a good idea in theory, but if the audience is clapping, it might be hard to hear some of the lyrics, which were pretty clever. For one of the characters–“You’re only in one scene.”
For the encore, he came back so he could end in “the traditional Duncan Sheik ending the show way… with someone else’s song.” He did his rendition of “Fake Plastic Trees,” which was enjoyable, but his work is good enough that he doesn’t need to end with anyone else’s songs. But at least it was less predictable than ending with, say, “Barely Breathing.”
