It's a little odd going to Floristree for just another night of Baltimore indie weirdness mere weeks after the ostensibly "secret" venue was the focal point of "scene" profiles in both
and
magzines. We remember going to the place when it was just "the H&H Building," and nothing much about the space has changed in the years since. In fact, there's something comforting, after all the media hype, to be able to see a Wednesday night show at Floristree as mellow as Noble Lake's, with most of the audience quietly seated and the volume rarely rising above a dull roar.
The first act of the night was
, a member of the folky ensemble Small Sur. And though he was billed solo on Wednesday, a rotating cast of familiar local faces backed him up on various songs, including some of his Small Sur bandmates, Wye Oak's Andy Stack and Private Eleanor frontman Austin Stahl, who to our surprise played drums for most of the set. Abelow sings softly and came off as genial but shy when performing, apologetic for any pauses for tuning and sometimes almost overpowered by his band's unobtrusive backing. Unfortunately, his live sound, as pleasant as it was, never quite achieved the intangibly strange ambiance of Abelow's recordings.
The two out-of-town acts on the bill, Binghamton, N.Y.'s
and Missouri's
, turned out to be the same people, in slightly different configurations. Golden Ghost was singer/guitarist Laura Sue, accompanied by Brendon Massei on backing vocals, while Viking Moses switched roles with Massei playing guitar and singing his own songs, with Sue on backup. They even used the same guitar. But during both sets, Massei was the dominant personality, belting out in a deep voice reminiscent of Nick Cave and striking ridiculous rock-star poses even when Sue was singing lead. She was clearly the better songwriter of the two, but her subtle guitar work and pleasant voice were frequently drowned out by her collaborator's incongruous showboating. It was a little like watching Iggy Pop share a stage with someone like Mary Lou Lord, but the awkwardness failed to pay off in terms of entertainment value. It would be fair to mention that our own sleep deprivation and the ready availability of seating played a factor, but the pair's set, particularly the Viking Moses portion, may have been the closest we've ever come to taking a nap during a concert.
By the time
got a chance to play, it was getting late, and the headliner had to cut its set down to about a half-hour and encourage the audience to keep it down. Thankfully, the band's rustic, restrained sound rarely reaches particularly high volumes, even with a full quartet lineup. Frontman James Sarsgaard sometimes plays solo, depending on the availability of his bandmates, Wye Oak's Andy Stack and Jenn Wasner, who've been touring heavily in recent months. So it was a special treat on Wednesday to catch what Sarsgaard noted will probably be the last Noble Lake show with all members present for a while.
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The band set up in front of the stage, rather than on it like the previous acts, with minimal lighting, and crowded closely together with most of the audience nearby. It'd be easy to make a band whose instruments include banjo, harmonium , and singing saw sound like a bizarre retro mishmash, but it all congealed gracefully with Sarsgaard's elegant songwriting. The percussion on most songs was nonexistent, or limited to a bass drum and tambourine played with foot pedals by Wasner and Stack, respectively. But as quietly intimate as the performance was, nearly everyone in the room was raptly attentive, with a few people getting up to dance to the jauntier songs. As tired as we were by that point, we were no longer in danger of nodding off.
