Steven Shanks/Megan Palmer/The Black Swans/Mark Turns at Andyman's Treehouse

Last night an old friend of mine, Seth Pfannenschmidt (he's also a musician) went out to Andyman's to catch Megan Palmer and The Black Swans. When we showed up we found out that there were two other folks on the bill, singer/songwriter Steve Shanks (aka Timid Blue) and Mark Turns, a spoken word "artist". Apparently, it was Mark Turns' CD release party, although no one but Mark really knew anything about that. Anyway, we ran into the inimitable Robert Duffy and another donewaiting.com writer, Ben Chenowith and had a pretty damn good time.

The show was due to start at 10PM, but since it was Andyman's Treehouse, we all knew that was a pretty loose approximation at best. So we were hanging out at the bar at around 10:20PM when Seth went out to smoke. I decided to find a spot in the Tree room, and I was very surprised to hear the gentle, intimate sound of Steve Shanks creeping out of the PAs. There were about 20 people sitting around the tree, quietly observing the scruffy looking gentleman expertly caressing his acoustic guitar, picking out a pretty incredible cover of "With or Without You". His voice (and demeanor) reminded me a lot of other smokey-voiced male singers, like Damien Rice or any of the members of The Thorns. His voice was a great compliment to his finger-picking style, even if it did fail him a bit toward the top of his range. His rapport was awkward at first, but then, towards the end of a great story about his dog, I realized that this kind of intimate storytelling, with the crowd at eye level with the artist, was only possible here, with a crowd as small as this.

When Megan Palmer went on, I was surprised to see three other ladies joining her in front of the white Christmas lights. I heard it was going to be a solo performance, but Robert told me that when she found out about the other "bands" on the bill, she called up some friends and managed to wrangle up a backup vocalist and two violinists (all ladies), for this Friday night gig. Which is good, seeing as how this is Megan's last local show for several months before she disembarks to take on the Big Apple. I was also surprised to see her wielding an electric guitar, I thought it would be jarring to hear an electric after the quietness of Steve Shanks' completely acoustic set. It all came together once she started playing the scaled back and slowed down version of "Deadman", though. With no drums the song was very reminiscent of the demo version that's on the second disc of "Take You Away". It started quiet, but it built nicely with the violins and backup vocalist. With the title track, I discovered a pleasant side-effect of having the electric guitar present: it took the already beautiful song, and imbued it with a healthy amount of twang. With one last heartbroken tune ("Hair of the Dog"), Megan Palmer and her Lady Orchestra turned a 180 and became a sassy, fun, jamming chick band. Halfway through the closing number, "Desperate Housewives", I remember thinking to myself, "Here's a group of ladies that are having an absolute blast!". You'll see what I mean tomorrow, I have a great clip of the song I'll put up on YouTube.

When I asked Seth if he wanted to come to the show last night, he was pretty excited to get a chance to see The Black Swans (recent recipients of a whopping 7.9 from Pitchfork). He's actually the one who told me about the P4K review, so of course I had to go check them out. I was definitely intrigued by the band, if not completely sold on the vocals. No drums, just a bass guitar (quite a beautiful specimen, according to Seth), an acoustic, and a violin, but don't think for a moment that they're missing a single thing. The sound was old and dusty, an aged tome in the back of a cracked-plaster room. When I listened I was also struck by how touching, how genuinely, sincerely touching the words of that first tune were (I think it was "Only Be With You"). It was also surprising, given the sound and general tone of the songs, to come face to face with the raunchily acronym-ized, "IDW2F" (read: "I don't want to fuck"). It was surprising as well, because of the fact that the song sounds so close and kind (even if they weren't able to finish it, lead singer, Jerry DeCicca, totally forgot the words). The band played two new tunes, "Little Things", an incredibly loving song as far as I could tell, and "Little White Pills (?)" that had one of the best, most thunderous build-from-fucking-nowhere that I have heard in a long long time (and we all know how I'm a sucker for the buildup). After the show, I talked with Jerry for a little bit (if he looks familiar to you Columbus natives, that's because he works at Used Kids and has for years, he used to run the vinyl side when they were in the basement!). He is such a nice guy, and I really look forward to seeing them again, especially now that I'm sold on the vocals.

At around 1AM, Mark Turns finally stood in front of the audience (noticeably thinned after the Black Swans packed up their gear) and I was utterly confused. He's apparently a spoken word "artist"/poet, but when I first heard him, he was singing, badly, with a pre-recorded beat
behind him. When I say bad, I mean like drunken karaoke bad, only you're not really sure if the guy singing actually thinks he can sing or not. It would have been easier if I knew he was just joking around, singing bad on purpose, but truth be told, I think he was being completely serious. It just got worse (better?) when he ditched the singing and started reading what he called, "Just a Simple Love Letter". I actually have a few clips of the "love letter", where he described what I think was the first date between he and his lady friend. The date ended with the two of them making love, and his monologue definitely did not leave any details to the imagination. It was strange because, like I said, I think he is being completely serious, (which would explain the 20+ CDs he has for sale on his website), but at the same time, I can't imagine that he could possibly think what he was doing was art, let alone GOOD art. It was painful to listen to, in that kind of painfully sad way, like watching your Dungeon Master ask out Kristen Votapek (Homecoming Queen). And when we were all laughing, I hope he realized that we weren't laughing with him, we were honestly laughing at him. Ah well, I guess it takes all kinds, is Tay Zonday still famous? At least the other three artists were actually talented and made the night more than worthwhile.

"Hair of the Dog" Megan Palmer
"Change" The Black Swans

Steve Shanks aka Timid Blue: Myspace
Megan Palmer: Official Buy
The Black Swans: Official Buy
Mark Turns: Official Buy