I must now take a hot moment to thank whatever sucker sold Tindersticks' album Curtains to the Hastings in my hometown, shortly after the album came out in 1997. I came across it browsing the racks some bored weekend evening and snatched it up because I'd read a review in Mojo. I had no idea what I was in for. On that first track, "Another Night In," a swell of strings ushers in a bass guitar, piano and drum set. The strings lock in to a swaying melody, a tired, sweet, last-call groove. And then this dude begins singing. His deep voice is half-murmur, half-croon; he sounds like he's halfway asleep, his dreams choking him awake. Eventually, he's able to groan out the reason for his fitfullness: For the love of that girl. It's all curtains from there, beautiful, dark, smothering curtains.
Centering around the brooding, sparse baritone of Stuart A. Staples, Tindersticks songs are studies in being elegantly alienated and suffering in style. When I finally got around to watching all of the Sopranos episodes two winters ago, I was gratified that the Tindersticks song "Tiny Tears" was chosen by the show's music editor to soundtrack one of Tony's bleakest spells. The Nottingham, England, group mixes Beatles-influenced pop, lounge jazz, Spaghetti-western horns and art-rock cadenzas into a creeping, rising chamber-noir that is often too weird to be melodramatic. Whether you are indeed a down-on-your-luck writer on a gin bender in Paris trying to forget her or just want to feel like you are, Tindersticks has something for you.
The night's venue was a cold, drafty Episcopal cathedral on Chicago's West Side that has begun hosting shows booked by the Empty Bottle. Stepping inside was like traveling back a millenium or so: stone floors, dark wood banisters high overhead and a back wall covered with stone engravings bent toward the purpose of saluting God: "HALLELUJAH"s everywhere and benedictory biblical verses "AND THEY SHALL BE HIS PEOPLE." The effect was reinforced by openers Jon Langford and Sally Timms (both of the Mekons and the Waco Bros.), whose set was not un-medieval. Langford played guitar and sang and Timms sang and operated various wooden squeezeboxes and wheezing drone devices, one of which looked like a small wooden briefcase. I think a miniature accordion player was trapped inside, held in thrall by some fey spell.
At around 9, the seven Tindersticks began arriving on stage: refined blokes in grown-up slacks, shirts and coats. One by one, they built the foundations of the introductory instrumental on the group's 2008 album, The Hungry Saw: first piano, then cello, then bass and eventually guitar, horns, drums, all building to a simmer. Then all seven members of the current lineup were at the pulpit. At the fore was Staples, tall, dashing and with sideburns to make the devil feel outgunned. They rode into "Yesterdays Tomorrows" (track 2 off Saw) with the demure energy of a drunk grand dame who has no business going out putting on her makeup and evening gown and going out.
In the five years before the release of Saw, the group lost several members (only Staples, guitarist Neal Fraser and keyboardist David Boulter remain), and Staples put out two solo albums, so it's kind of a wonder Tindersticks is out at all. The Hungry Saw, however, finds the group displaying true zeal for its work. On this tour Tindersticks is playing its entire new album, with only a few old ones thrown in (and one spectacularly blazing Townes Van Zandt cover), and they're having fun doing it. During this show, band members frequently exchanged smiles on stage. Even Staples broke out of his enraptured mode and seemed to crack up on stage.
Normally, the strict adherence to new material -- especially a whole album -- would frustrate fans, especially ones like me who'd never seen them live before and would have cut their own pinky toe off to hear "Can We Start Again" or "Tiny Tears" or maybe even "Rented Rooms." But the group's live performance satisfied at every turn. The live arrangements of the mostly subdued Saw's tracks spiralled to the roofbeams, turning just about every number into a smoldering bonfire. And considering that the show lasted for nearly two hours and ended with two encores, one could hardly complain about the lack of more familiar material.
(In addition to Staples, Fraser and Boulter, there was a drummer, bassist, cellist/saxophonist and trumpeter/saxophonist. Apologies for not knowing the guys' names.)
Set list:
Introduction
Yesterdays Tomorrows
The Flicker of a Little Girl
Come Feel the Sun
E Type
The Other Side of the World
The Organist Entertains
Dying Slowly
16 Summers, 15 Falls
Say Goodbye to the City
Sleepy Song
She's Gone
Hungry Saw
Mother Dear
Boobar Come Back to Me
All the Love
The Turns We Took
encore 1
Buried Bones
My Oblivion
Her
My Sister
encore 2
The Not Knowing
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