Sparklehorse & Jesse Sykes @ Webster Hall: Slide Away

Matt: Being a relative newcomer (ok, complete neophyte) to both Jesse Sykes and Sparklehorse, respectively, I was extremely curious to see what each had up their sleeves for their largest joint crowd, to date, last night at Webster Hall.

Jesse started the show around 9pm with her Sweet Hereafter band and played about 45 minutes of Melissa Etheridge-meets-Janis Joplin vocal stylings. While one would think that the combination would be intriguing, Jesse's awkward stage banter and monotonous tunes did little to catpure me. While I did appreciate her use of slide guitar and general sense of melody, the end result was a little too Lite-FM for me. Very adult contemporary and a little uncomfortable, mundane Seattle cafe act. Awesome boots though! White patent leather, for those who can't make them out in the above photo.

The mostly male fans in attendance (we're talking 85/15 male/female ratio, folks!) were in an uproar by the time Mark Linkous and the rest of Sparklehorse took to the stage somewhere around 20 after 10. A few concert go-ers roughly 5 rows back were dancing/moshing/shouting along to the entire set, while the majority of the crowd watched maniacally as Sparklehorse entranced his loyal fanbase, whom nearly sold out the 1400 capacity room.

I kept thinking about different bands as Sparklehorse performed their 80-minute set. First I wanted to compare them to early Grandaddy, then I was insistent that Low was Sparklehorse's closest cousin. At times, I heard an alt-country feel which reminded me of Yankee Hotel Foxtrot-era Wilco, and then at times, when the guitar experimentation reached its crescendos, I wanted to contrast Sparklehorse to Soft Bulletin-era Flaming Lips.

As you can see, I am finding it to be a difficult task to throw Sparklehorse in one musical boat, as they obviously float in and out of varying genres. Definitely an enjoyable show, I think with repeated listens to Sparklehorse's many releases, I would enjoy their next gig even more. Wanna check them out? Sparklehorse will be touring the Southern part of the US through SXSW, check out all the tour dates, here, on their MySpace page!

Jen: I don't really have anything to add. Damn Matt, well done. Jesse Sykes' music was indeed lovely but failed to make a real impact. And Sparklehorse did well but their overall feeling had me very subdued, perhaps that was just the recipe for a Wednesday show though. Can I comment though on the couple groping at each other in the balcony for all to see below? Did anybody downstairs get a full frontal visual of that nonsense? I'm almost surprised they didn't get booted out of there.

MP3: Sparklehorse - Gold Day