Spearheading the Americana revival along with Fleet Foxes, 2008’s biggest success story has seen Wisconsin folkie Justin Vernon work his way from London’s miniscule Social (audience capacity: 100) to the mammoth Apollo Victoria Theatre (audience capacity: 2000+) in the space of just six months. And let’s be fair, his meteoric rise is well-deserved. Although I never fell head-over-heels in love with “For Emma, Forever Ago,” his magical support set for Iron and Wine- his first ever London show- saw him enrapture an audience of 2500 with such effortless ease that it was clear from the outset he could handle a headline slot of this size without breaking a sweat.
But tonight, something went slightly awry. As brilliant as it was at times (and set-pieces like Skinny Love and the mass-audience harmonies of Wolves), much of the set reflected an unfortunate disdain for the simple elegance that propelled him to this position in the first place. To play only one song solo was a mistake; whilst his band are fantastic, much of his appeal lies with the forlorn sparseness of his arrangements and the two drum-kit set up was just too forceful for the material. His latest EP ‘Blood Bank’ was performed in its entirety; whilst it’s naturally welcome to hear new material it simply isn’t as strong as the ‘For Emma’ stuff, with only the balls-out rock of the title track truly standing out. And although the scarcity of material was always going to limit the length of his show, few would dispute it was disappointingly brief. Perhaps I’m being harsh- it was still a very good performance- but it just lacked that je ne sai quoi that made his previous shows so special.
Venue was great though- grandoise Art Deco stylings, high quality lighting and a giant mechanical dragon from the musical ‘Wicked’ which was pretty cool, albeit slightly out of place…
(Photo: 12thOctave (Flickr))
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