Roll Call: Iron & Wine

[nkotb]

Sorry to keep this going, but I had no luck with calling Iota.  Do they let you come and go from the space?  I was thinking of having my girlfriend come with me when I paid the cover, and then her coming back when she was able.  Do you think that would fly?

[ggw]

Originally posted by nkotbie:
  Sorry to keep this going, but I had no luck with calling Iota.  Do they let you come and go from the space?  I was thinking of having my girlfriend come with me when I paid the cover, and then her coming back when she was able.  Do you think that would fly?

Yes.  But it depends when you go.  Sometimes there is nobody at the door until just before showtime.

[eltee]

Originally posted by nkotbie:
  Sorry to keep this going, but I had no luck with calling Iota.  Do they let you come and go from the space?  I was thinking of having my girlfriend come with me when I paid the cover, and then her coming back when she was able.  Do you think that would fly?

I know, getting someone to pick up the phone there can be tough. Try mid- to late afternoon if ya feel like it. Anyhow, yes, if you pay, check-in and get a stamp, you can return. If someone isn't there right before show, it's either b/c it's too early for them to be posted at the front, or they are in the restaurant and bar stamping people attending the show. If early enough, go to the bar inside and get stamped. Oh hell, just cut off your girlfriend's hand.  

[bellenseb]

They try to have someone posted at least an hour before showtime to sell "tickets".
 
 You can definitely go get stamped around 7 and then get dinner or whatever and come back to see the headliner at 10.

[nkotb]

Great.  Thanks for the advice, everyone.  Except that whole "hand cutting off" thing.  Somehow I'm guessing that wouldn't fly...

[nkotb]

Beautiful set last night.  And the handstamping worked perfectly.  Thanks again for the advice.
 
 I'll tell you, it was well worth the $12 for that amazing rendition of "Southern Anthem" and "Dead Man's Will."  Man, something about his voice breaks my heart.
 
 And what's up with Cass McCombs these days?  When I saw them before, it was a four piece that played tired nu-new wave, and a singer that tried his damnedest to be sensitive and important (uh, "AIDS in Africa?").  Now, it was a five piece with only the singer remaining, and at least two of the backing band were from the Oxes.  Very odd, all things considered.  Still, I enjoyed them about 100 times more than when they opened for the Shins.

[Bags]

washingtonpost.com
 Iron & Wine: The Quiet Storm
 
 
 Wednesday, June 23, 2004; Page C07
 
 
 Quietness is a virtue overlooked by music makers of all stripes and fashions. The tendency is to overplay, overfill, oversing. Not so for Sam Beam, the Florida-based singer whose voice rarely registers above a whisper and at its loudest might qualify as a murmur. Beam, who records under the band name Iron & Wine, brought a few musicians to a sold-out Iota on Monday night, the first of two nights for him at the club, but you had to pay close attention to hear the contributions of bassist EJ Holowicki, guitarist Patrick McKinney and drummer Jonathan Bradley.
 
 For a few songs the trio left the stage to let Beam play alone, and the difference in the overall sound was almost imperceptible. Almost, but not entirely. For Beam's minimalist indie-blues, a cross between Elliott Smith and Mississippi John Hurt, the players added just the right sort of meticulous accompaniment required for such delicate compositions as "Radio War" and a cover of Howlin' Wolf's "Smokestack Lightning."
 
 With his close-cropped hair, bushy beard and deep-set eyes, Beam looks a bit like a haunted figure from a Civil War photograph, and his songs, too, feel of another time. Choosing material from his two CDs, this year's "Our Endless Numbered Days" and 2002's "The Creek Drank the Cradle," Beam seemed to lose himself in eerie tales of death, southern gothic devotion and even primitive spirituality.
 
 For the beautiful and disturbing "Naked as We Came," Beam barely breathed the lines "One of us will die inside these arms / Eyes wide open, naked as we came / One will spread our ashes round the yard." You could scream out lyrics like that and get your point across. But having to strain to hear Beam somehow made the words sound that much more despondent, vexing and lovely.
 
 -- Joe Heim