January 15. Until then, "I'm a Vampire" and "Washington, D.C." on constant repeat.The Magnetic Fields came to the Birchmere a few year years ago. Stephin Merritt has an anti-presence on stage, and after a particularly robust cheer early in the set he also winced and asked that nobody whoop in the higher registers, because it hurt his ears. Deep-voiced and ridiculous woos punctuated the rest of the show. Merritt didn't seem to be enjoying himself much until he and Claudia Gonson teamed up for "Yeah, Oh Yeah." She sang the verses while he twisted slowly around on his rotating stool, orbiting by the mike to deliver the three-word chorus and then spinning on, getting cheerier as the song got darker and the threat of violence more explicit. The most spontaneous reaction from the audience came during "Papa Was a Rodeo," when Merritt demonstrated his ability to sing one of his most romantic and well-loved songs while using an uncooperative lighter to get his cigarette going. "I like your twisted point of view, Mike," flick flick flick, "I like your questioning eyebrow," flickflickflickflick, "You've made it pretty clear what you like," flickflickflick success! "It's only fair to tell you now," inhale, audience applause, "That I leave early in the morning/ And I won't be back till next year/ I see that kiss-me pucker forming/ But maybe you should plug it with a beer."
[ETA: There are no concert dates scheduled in the DC area. Two of the three February shows at NYC's Town Hall are already sold out, and the remaining show is a Thursday night. Le forlorn sigh.]
2 comments:
That was an awesome show, made even awesomer (yes, AWESOMER) because we were, like, 2 feet away from Mr. Merritt. Everyone knows closer=better.
The first time I saw The Magnetic Fields was right before the release of 69 Love Songs. They refused to play anything off any other album, and Stephin addressed the shouted requests from the audience with heavy eye-rolling. It was one of the best shows I've ever been to.
I know; for once the genetic obsession for timeliness was worth it! Good times, good times.
I love the story about Neil Gaiman and Stephin Merritt walking down the street in NYC talking about the music in "Coraline." As they were crossing a street, Merritt suddenly hunched his shoulders, clawed up his hands, and started to sing the rat song so creepily that a woman walking near them looked terrified and speed-walked away. AWESOMEST.
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