Was very excited about seeing Veirs, and had made my (anticipatory) peace with the likelihood that it would be quite a Carbon Glacier-centric set (CG's a very good album, but not half as lovely as Troubled By The Fire). Indeed, most of the songs she played were from her latest, but it was really nice to hear them given a more organic treatment (one of the reasons I don't love Carbon Glacier as much as I do TBTF is that it feels a bit too, well, glacial, as if all of its songs are coated by a thin layer of ice), with Veirs' fabulous voice right out the front.
On that subject, it really was a wonderful experience to hear the charming Laura sing live. Having spent so much time listening to her voice on record, it was odd - in an entirely pleasant way - to hear precisely the same voice coming across while I was in the same room. It made me realise how good the production on her albums is, and how unvarnished her voice is on those recordings, for she sounded pretty much exactly the same in person (and I got a kick out of hearing those familiar enunciations and intonations - that familiar accent, really - in her conversational chatter to the crowd between songs). Plus, she's such a great, unaffected yet memorable singer - how could it go wrong?
Anyway, as I said, most of the songs were from Carbon Glacier, but Veirs did play "Devil's Hootenanny" and "Tiger Tattoos", as well as some new songs (which sounded good - apparently the album's due in August), and I didn't feel shortchanged in that regard (though it would've been nice to hear "Ohio Clouds" and "Midnight Singer" - my favourite of her songs). There was also an interlude in the middle during which the band performed three songs by Tortured Soul Karl Blau (who's doing a full solo show at the Rob Roy next week) - I wasn't really feeling his stuff, but the crowd seemed to be into it...my impressions are vague but I think it was kinda Bright Eyes/Mountain Goats-y, though less harrowing/pretentious.
All in all, it wasn't as amazing as some of the gigs I've been to over the last 12 months or so (Pretty Girls Make Graves and Belle & Sebastian stand out) but, given how much I like Veirs' music, and how familiar I was with most of the songs in her set, I was always going to enjoy this, and indeed it was pretty darn good.
