Iron & Wine - Olympia 14th March

Trevor O

Hey guys, anyone heading to the Iron & Wine gig in The Olympia on the 14th March?

discobeaker

Hell yeah!!!! I cant wait. Seen him the last time he played the Olympia. If you havent seen him live your in for a treat. The musicians with Sam are amazing.

pasta-solo

Got a ticket for it too, can't wait, the new album is fantastic.

melissavm

I do. Really excited. It's my first time seeing iron & wine live!

Trevor O

First time actually seeing him live. Only been listening to him for the last 12 months or so but was instantly amazed! I'm expecting it to be amazing if Norfolk is anything to judge his live performances by!

:Keith:

I got my tickets Third time I'll be seeing Iron and Wine live.

Marshmallowie

Can't wait for Iron & Wine... just moved to Dublin and browsing ticketmaster and he popped up!! Happy out like a trout!!
Possibly will be turning up on my lonesome but I don't care because it'll be AMAZING!!!
I want flightless bird to be my first dance song (if I ever get married) and I want it played at my funeral... its my happy song!!

Trevor O

Don't suppose there's a bus of any description going to this gig from Cork? Thought of driving up and down the same day isn't very appealing and just got back from a week's holidays today so can't take another day off!

sporina

looking forward to the gig.. though i have read bad reviews of the gigs he has done so far on this tour..

tbh i am not a mad lover of the new album - i miss the raw folky vibe that is in abundance in all his other work.. but there is still the essence of sam there so..

CyberDave

I'm a huge Iron & Wine fan and have been since 2006. I love Sam Beams laid back mellow sound and the experimentation of 'The Shepherds Dog' and more recently 'Kiss Each Other Clean' albums. However, last night was a major disappointment. He played some songs off his older albums, but went to town on the experimentation. By the end of the gig I found myself hating the Sax player. The Sax was far to prominent on many of the songs and many of them turned into Jazz jams with far too much instrumentation. The complete opposite to Iron & Wines signature stripped down sound. Not what I signed up for. Just wondering if there are any other fans on here and what you thought?

missingtime

CyberDave wrote: »

I'm a huge Iron & Wine fan and have been since 2006. I love Sam Beams laid back mellow sound and the experimentation of 'The Shepherds Dog' and more recently 'Kiss Each Other Clean' albums. However, last night was a major disappointment. He played some songs off his older albums, but went to town on the experimentation. By the end of the gig I found myself hating the Sax player. The Sax was far to prominent on many of the songs and many of them turned into Jazz jams with far too much instrumentation. The complete opposite to Iron & Wines signature stripped down sound. Not what I signed up for. Just wondering if there are any other fans on here and what you thought?

Im a huge fan of Iron and Wine as well. Have been listening to them for years and love their sound but like yourself I was disappointed with the "jazz fusion" that seemed to spoil the songs.

Its a pet peeve of mine when artists decide to change the song from what appears on the album and thats what happened on Monday night.

There were lots of highlights but I really dont like Jazz and I dont know why he decided to do that to the songs.

Trevor O

I wouldn't say a major disappointment but was a little disappointed. I know live gigs aren't supposed to be exact performances of the studio recordings but I thought some of the experimental jazz-type things took away from the power of the original songs.

That said, I know he's made changes to live performances before. In fact, most of the songs on the live album Norfolk are better than their recorded counterparts in my own opinion. In the Olympia, when he did play the songs as they were recorded (one thats springs to mind is Me and Lazarus) people went wild for them!

But, all said, I still really enjoyed it and got to meet him afterwards and get a photo!

missingtime

Trevor O wrote: »

But, all said, I still really enjoyed it and got to meet him afterwards and get a photo!

Nice one. Congrats

Trevor O

missingtime wrote: »

Nice one. Congrats

Thanks! The man has a super beard!




Censoring added cause I know the feckers on the You Laugh You Lose thread would go to town on me! :-D

missingtime

Review here: http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/features/2011/0316/1224292261460.html

Sam Beam’s career arc has an appropriately graceful, gradual trajectory to it – a solo singer-songwriter who, as Iron and Wine , crafted achingly beautiful folk songs that attracted an ever-growing fanbase, before expanding his sound to incorporate a full band, replete with dense guitar solos and intricate vocal harmonies. The fanbase kept growing, until his latest album, Kiss Each Other Clean , debuted at an impressive No 2 on the US charts.

His new album marks another evolution in his style, with a more 1970s, languorous lounge vibe, with heavy use of keyboard and horn section. It’s a somewhat unexpected route – the influence of Jethro Tull and Fleetwood Mac wasn’t obvious on his sparsely arranged early material.

But it’s an approach he has embraced wholeheartedly for his live shows. Beam has been responsible for a few of the most memorable gigs in Dublin over the past few years, thrilling crowds at the Olympia and Ambassador, but nowadays Beam and his seven-piece band are producing a kind of fusion funk-folk, which is only occasionally as exciting as that sounds.

His demeanour is that of a dignified Southern gentleman, and with his bushy beard, bouffant hair and dapper jacket, he has a refined, singular stage presence. The musicianship is uniformly excellent, but the imposition of this new style on his folky back catalogue is an experiment that brings mixed results. Every artist should be praised for reimagining their material, but the introduction of jazzy keyboard, flute, oboe and sax on classics such as Lion’s Mane and Free Until They Cut Me Down , for instance, sounds like experimentation for the sake of it.

Lounge music is not a genre noted for its ability to convey sincerity, and the earthy, fragile honesty of Beam’s songs gets overshadowed in these arrangements – frequently, it felt as if Beam was interpreting his own material rather than just playing it.

It was difficult to gauge how receptive the crowd was to the sometimes radically refashioned songs – many seemed restless rather than absorbed – but it was significant that a closing, and unvarnished, Naked As We Came drew the most rousing reaction of the night. Beam will continue to enthral and reward, but in time this phase might be considered an interesting, if not entirely successful, digression.

sporina

yeah I have to say I am split in my opinion of the gig.

I love Iron and wine for his vocals and the less is more approach on his older albums. I know kiss each other clean is a step away from the norm so I did go to the gig with an open mind, but as someone said already - why did he have to experiment with the older stuff? We have waited so long for him to come to Ireland, I think he should have played some of his classics - as we know them, for fans of his older stuff.

Too much sax for sure, and I feel that the musicians were playing as separate entities as oppose to in unison.
There was very little atmosphere and I felt the performance very staunch. He could have introduced the musicians to perhaps help to break down the barrier between them and the audience.

In saying that, some of the jams were great and really carried me away - but its not what I had hoped for.

CyberDave

Trevor O wrote: »

I wouldn't say a major disappointment but was a little disappointed. I know live gigs aren't supposed to be exact performances of the studio recordings but I thought some of the experimental jazz-type things took away from the power of the original songs.

That said, I know he's made changes to live performances before. In fact, most of the songs on the live album Norfolk are better than their recorded counterparts in my own opinion. In the Olympia, when he did play the songs as they were recorded (one thats springs to mind is Me and Lazarus) people went wild for them!

But, all said, I still really enjoyed it and got to meet him afterwards and get a photo!

Jealous you got to meet him. He seems like a nice guy. I love the earlier stuff and though The Shepherds Dog was a change to a fuller sound, I loved that too. Not as crazy about Kiss Each Other Clean, mainly because of a couple of the more experimentsl songs 'Fake Name' and 'Big Burned Hand'. Boy With A Coin, Me and Lazarus and Naked as we came were definitely received best by the crowd. He really over did it with Free Until They Cut Me Down. I seen him last time round in Galway and was blown away. I think he has become too concerned with trying to sound alternative. Less is more.

Trevor O

CyberDave wrote: »

Less is more.

Agreed. I'd love to just see him, his guitar and a microphone!

CyberDave

Trevor O wrote: »

Agreed. I'd love to just see him, his guitar and a microphone!

That is Sam Beam at his best. 95% of the tracks from the last couple of albums I love as well, but the Jazz Fusion and Jams are taking it too far.