November 8th, 2008 * 9 30 Listening Room * Louisville, KY
MP3:
The 9 30 Listening Room is nothing if not unique. Located in the run down industrial district of Louisville referred to as Germantown, the restored building functions as an art gallery, music venue and even a church.
Catering mostly to hard-touring independent acts (in the last year, the Listening Room has played host to buzz acts like Ingrid Michaelson, Grizzly Bear, and Margot & the Nuclear So & So's - just to name a few), the room often solicits a weird reaction from some of the groups that take it's stage.
Such was the case with Jolie Holland on Saturday night.
Miss Holland took several moments to express her awkwardness with the performance set-up, asking the crowd "What's the sermon about today?" and mentioning that "I'm liable to talk too much tonight. I blame the pulpit." But what no doubt makes the room unsettling to the performer is not it's other uses. It's the tendency for the room to be treated by the audience more like a theatre than a bar - meaning that gone is the constant buzz of conversation and clinking of glasses. Replacing it is rapt attention and silence between songs. For acts used to playing small clubs, transitioning to playing with so much figurative "spotlight" must be at least unnerving. But Ms. Holland handled it well.
Backed by a guitarist, bass player and drummer - and transitioning her own instrumental attentions between classical guitar, regular steel-stringed acoustic, and a home-made box fiddle - Holland surveyed her four albums and showed off a large portion of her newest effort for the ANTI label - The Living and the Dead.
After a tight and infectious version of the new album's "Palmyra," Holland shared that she has been reading press about herself (something that she admits is a bad idea) and keeps seeing people call her new tracks "break-up songs."
"That wasn't one," she said, referencing "Palmyra."
"And neither is this!" From there the band broke into a spirited version of "Sweet Loving Man."
The crowd knew Holland's material and showed polite enthusiasm throughout the night - whether it was the couple dancing among the seated masses or the occasional requests for favorites. After ending the night with "Morphine," Holland was called back to the stage - this time solo - and attempted to take requests, most of which she apologetically declined for various reasons. But by the end of the night, Holland seemed to be having as much fun as her audience - truly flattered that she had such adoring friends who would come to see her play - regardless of venue.
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