 | She & Him  |
| Leonard Cohen | |
| Gary Louris | |
| STARS & MIRACLE FORTRESS | |
| Josh Rouse | |
| Born Ruffians & Caribou | |
| Bruce Springsteen & The E-Street Band | |
| The Bicycles | |
| The Police | |
| Edwin McCain & Low Stars |
She & Him July 23, 2008 Reviewed by Adam D. Miller What started out as something of a vanity project is becoming more and more like a real band. Smitten with actress Zooey Deschanel’s singing voice, and impressed with her hidden abilities as a songwriter, indie rocker M. Ward set out to help produce an album of her music. Initially, the pair’s busy schedules kept them from touring beyond a few television appearances and selected live performances. But then, on a whim, a tour of thirteen cities in seventeen days was announced, with a fourteenth performance planned for Baltimore, Maryland’s V Fest on August 10th. The first of these concerts happened at Toronto’s historic Opera House, and despite appearing nervous and sounding shaky on many of She & Him’s TV appearances over the past few months, Zooey Deschanel came across as confident and sounded fantastic during her tour debut. The fans, too, were wildly enthusiastic to see her, as she entered the stage in a cute, vintage-styled dress. Joined by a talented group of musicians – including frequent M. Ward collaborator Mike Coykendall on guitar, Lavender Diamond’s Becky Stark on backing vocals, and a very pregnant bass player – Ward and Deschanel commanded the stage for a faithful rendition of Volume One’s “Black Hole.” The playful acoustic opening of the song quickly gave way to M. Ward’s impressive slide guitar playing. The audience went crazy and pretty much didn’t let up for the duration of the concert. Not surprisingly, most of She & Him’s setlist was comprised of tracks from their album. After full-band renditions of “Change Is Hard,” “I Was Made For You” and “Sentimental Heart,” Deschanel told the audience of her love for Toronto and Canada before launching into a song by a Canadian, Joni Mitchell’s “You Turn Me On, I’m A Radio.” The challenging vocal range of the song was of no difficulty to Deschanel, who maneuvered around the words and intricacies of the melody in a way that was both playful and compelling. On this song, as with the cover that followed of Smokey Robinson’s “You Really Got A Hold On Me,” she was joined by Ward’s simple acoustic guitar playing and nothing else. On the latter song, it became clear that many M. Ward fans were in attendance, because as soon as he chimed on backing vocals, the audience hooted and hollered. Eventually, the full band returned for several more Volume One cuts; the best of which were “I Thought I Saw Your Face Today” (featuring Deschanel on piano) and the upbeat “Sweet Darling,” which closed the main set. The fans were sorry to see the show end so quickly, though with one album to promote it shouldn’t have been too much of a surprise. For their brief encore, She & Him returned to the stage for another acoustic non-album cover, Sam Cooke’s “Bring It On Home To Me.” But it was the raucous, full-band rendition of M. Ward’s own “Magic Trick” that really brought the house down. One can’t argue with Ward for wanting to put Deschanel in the spotlight, but after hearing how effectively the pair performed this song, one couldn’t help but wish for more Ward. And clocking in at a mere 50 minutes, the set could have benefited from his back catalogue. Still, it’s hard to fault musicians that sound so good and have so much fun at the same time. Hopefully if a Volume Two materializes, the pair’s performances will be lengthened accordingly. |
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