Iron & Wine @ Grog Shop - Cleveland Hts, OH, 4.16.05

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Originally uploaded by thespacerace.

This past Saturday I went and saw Iron & Wine at the Grog Shop for the second time. Although it was only a little over a year ago that I last saw him, plenty has changed, some for the good, and some, well, not so much.

As usual with me and concerts these days, the night started off on the wrong foot. While dining at a neighboring restaurant, I noticed a line begin to form to get into the sold out 400-person capacity Grog Shop. So my friends & I waited, and waited, and waited. The tickets had the show listed as 8pm, but doors did not open until 8:45. Once the line had shortened, we waited our turn, and finally entered around 9:45. And to no one's surprise, nothing had gone on yet. Finally around 10:15 (yeah, over 2 hours after the start time), the opener, Band of Horses, finally took the stage. The band features two former members of Carissa's Wierd, who I was a big fan of. Though this new band sounded nothing like their former, I really enjoyed it. It's hard to compare them to anyone since each song kind of crossed genres, but the singer reminded me a lot of My Morning Jacket (interesting to note the singer is one of the ex-CW members, though not the CW singer).

After that, Iron & Wine took the stage. Last time I saw them, it was Sam, his sister, and the banjo/backup guitar player. This time, I was very surprised to see six, yes six people take to the stage. Two percussionists and a bass player, in addition to the original three members. The set was identical to one I saw posted from a show in Atlanta a week ago, starting with 'Jezebel' & 'Woman King' (both off the new 'Woman King EP'). This was followed by a couple songs off 'Our Endless Numbered Days', though they sounded quite different with the additional musicianists. The percussionists played all kinds of instruments from bongos to tambourines, to some drums. And much to my surprise, I'd say 75% of the time there was an electric guitar in the mix, either from Sam Beam (the singer), or the other guitar player. The show definetely reflected the new direciton the band seems to be taking, which was very evident on the title track off the new EP. Most of the "old" songs were lightened up and made more upbeat and sounded a lot different than us fans are used to. I'm kind of split on how I feel about it, because the new versions of the songs were not bad (except for 'Cinder and Smoke' which they turned into a friggin' reggae song!), but I had grown to love the old, stripped down style that was their trademark. Sam did play a stripped down 'Naked As We Came' with just his sister, and it was awesome. But it was the only song played without the band, until the encore when he did two more as a duet.

Overall it was a good show. It was nice to only have to endure one opener for once (and a good one at that). Also, while the crowd was not as polite in terms of keeping quiet during the I&W set as last time, they still did a decent job given the number of 'OC' fans that showed up. I enjoyed the I&W set, but part of me is hoping that they return back to the stripped down style sometime soon.