2004-12-13 - Troubadour, Los Angeles

On Stage :

With Joan Wasser on violin

Setlist : 

september baby
blue lips
can't exist
vacancy
leave us alone
all of our hands
in the sun
secret ghost
prison
a smile that explodes
honey and the moon
mercedes
she paints me gold 

Recording :

The concert was officially recorded, and sold on CDr after the show.

Review :

By Steve Appleford : Joseph Arthur's songs transcend his mood-creating special effects


December 15, 2004

Joseph Arthur is a singer-songwriter with an itch for electronics. His music floats beneath waves of sound and echo, dreamy and biting, painfully direct or obscured by clouds. He's just a man with a guitar, but one who has the right gadgets and light touch to twist folk rock toward some compelling postmodern ends.

In the first of two nights at the Troubadour on Monday, Arthur performed his delicate melodies and hypnotic shuffles while dressed in dark shades, his microphone stand tangled up in blue Christmas lights. His vocals could be equally gloomy, as he sang, "The devil is the lord of this confusing world / Where all the wrong dreams come true."

There were endless loops and canned beats to fill out the arrangements, but for most of the 90-minute set, Arthur was ably joined by violinist Joan Wasser, who often played through her own heavy echo effects, as the bedsheet draped on the wall behind them flashed with lights and moving pictures.

The result could be blissed-out or bummed-out amid the layers of psychedelia, not unlike the high-tech, lo-fi work of Jon Brion (who was set to join Arthur for Tuesday's show).

And yet Arthur was just as effective without the effects, relying only on the clarity of his voice and acoustic guitar, expressing strength and longing on "Vacancy." Sometimes a good song is all you need.