I spent most of last Friday night at Emo’s with my hip pressed up against a giant speaker and a amused look on my face. I would occasionally remove my hands from my pockets to quietly snap a few photos, but for the most part I only removed them to applaud the genuine quirkiness of Rosie Thomas. Formerly of the Dreampop outfit Velour 100 (side project of His Name Is Alive), Thomas split the band and released her first solo album, “When We Were Small,” on Sub Pop in 2002. My first encounter with her came in March of 2001 when I paid $20 at the door to go to Sub Pop night at Emo’s during South by Southwest, which featured such diverse bands as the Go, Nebula, and the band I originally paid to see, Red House Painters.
When I walked through the doors that night I had no idea who Rosie Thomas was, but the concert experience that followed would stay stored away in my brain for long after. As anyone who knows me well enough will tell you, there is a part of me that really enjoys a good musical train wreck (that’s why I like to go see Mark Eitzel), and her performance was that and more. Sandwiched between 2 rock band, including the rude ‘n crude Black Halos, Thomas sat down in a chair with her acoustic guitar in hand and a pair of oversized black thick-rimmed glasses sliding off her nose. When she spoke her voice was meek, high-pitched, and child-like, but when she removed her glasses to sing it would morph into the soothingly strong, rich voice of an angel. At the end of every song she would punctuate it with quickly-spoken “thank you very much” reminiscent of Latka Gravas, she would then put her glasses back on and resume a nervous chit-chat with the restless audience. The real derailment occurred when Vancouver’s lame glam-punk-revivalist, the Black Halos (a band on the same label as Thomas mind you), began heckling her, she in turn took jabs at their punk rock credibility. All in all it was uncomfortable, beautiful, and slightly confrontational.
Friday night was a different story altogether, Rosie took the stage after local indie darlings, the Lovely Sparrows (celebrating the release of their new album), performed a well-received, but utterly unremarkable set, complete with the requisite, cookie-cutter cover of one of their contemporaries, in this case, the Magnetic Field’s “All My Little Words.” This time around she had her brother, Alex Thomas (on piano), and the crowd on her side. She played a confident set filled with gorgeous songs and hilarious discussions sprinkled in between them covering a wide range of topics including tabloid obsessions, knock-knock jokes, and Halloween costume suggestions (Steve “the Gutte” Guttenberg or The Fog!?!). The strength of her performance was striking and still surprising after all these years. When her set was over I checked out her merchandise stand where she sold among other things, self-designed hand-made purses and rather neat custom denim bracelets. Bottom line, I would marry Rosie Thomas.
The headlining act was the critically acclaimed (rightfully so) atmospheric country of Damien Jurado, a performer with a quiet simple demeanor similar to that of Karl from Sling Blade (minus the retardation and murderous tendencies obviously). This was the third time that I have seen Mr. Jurado, and it never ceases to amaze me how gentle and unassuming his persona appears to be, it’s as if he just finished riding a tractor for 3 hours, and now he wants to play me some songs. He seemed to play mostly stuff from 2003's “Where Shall You Take Me?” (including the beautiful “Abilene”) and the brand new “And Now That I’m Your Shadow,” out on Secretly Canadian. Towards the end he slipped in “December” from 2000's heartbreaking “Ghost of David” and closed with fan-favorite “Ohio.”
Rosie Thomas:
Farewell (from When We Were Small)
Let Myself Fall (from Only With Laughter Can You Win)
Sell All My Things (from Only With Laughter Can You Win)
Damien Jurado w/ Rosie Thomas:
Parking Lot (from Ghost of David)
Damien Jurado:
Medication (from Ghost of David)
December (from Ghost of David)
Ohio (from Rehearsals For Departure)
and just to prove that I don’t hate covers, here’s a Damien Jurado cover:
Ohio - CocoRosie
--Popkoff
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