Friday, May 7, 2010

Messersmith at the Cedar Cultural Center (file under chamber pop)

I had a chance to see local Jeremy Messermith play a packed show at the Cedar Cultural Center tonight. In case anyone wondered about the influences on Jeremy Messersmith's new album The Reluctant Graveyard, those questions were answered by the replica-McCartney bass and an encore performance of "Nowhere Man."

The new albums contains some of his strongest work. Always the able songsmith, this installment finds him scoring a string quartet and horns as well as the traditional guitar/bass/drums/piano model. The string sounded their finest on "John the Determinist," this album's Elanor Rigby. The live quartet brought out a depth and fullness of sound which I the album didn't fully capture. Other standout performances included "Franklin Ave" and "Lazy Bones."

Messermith seems to have reached a steady following. The crowd nervously sang along to the choruses of fan favorites "Novocaine" and "Great Times" and Jeremy was called back on stage for an encore (the first time that I saw him called for one).

Messermith started the set with "Novocaine." He played material from all three of his LPs and finished the set with an acoustic rendition of "Miracles."

Messersmith kicks off his 12 gig May tour tomorrow in Sioux Falls. If you are interested in his music check out his website. He has listings for his shows, streams all three albums and lets you download them at a price that you choose.

3 comments:

Tony said...

lol @ "the crowd nervously sang along".

RE said...

I debated going to the Cedar last night. Now I wish I had!

Nate said...

Tony: it was kind of funny. He has a lot of sing-along choruses and you could kind of make out the crowd singing, but we missed some words.

Ren: it was a pretty fun show. I have seen him a couple of times and I think this was the best I have seen him. Definitely worth the price of admission.