"Thanks for coming to our secret show in the woods!" Rennie's laughing, but there is something kinda fitting about THE HANDSOME FAMILY playing in such an atmospheric, backwoods setting, high above the road, surrounded by the tops of similarly dark trees to those adorning the cover of their new meisterwork "Twilight."
Actually, with the way Mr & Mrs.Sparks' star appears to be slowly going supernova, there may not be many more opportunities to catch 'em in such an intimate setting; bantering away, enjoying in-jokes (tonight dominated by Snowball the Horse and The Bagshee - Irish plastic bag monsters caught in trees!) and knocking pints of Murphys over their equipment.
In keeping with the informal atmosphere, tonight they leisurely stretch and gain confidence with their older favourites such as "Drunk By Noon" (note-perfect whistling solo there Brett) and the guaranteed ace "Giant Of Illinois" before slouching into the newer tunes; only a tentative "Cold Cold Cold" being offered during the first 10 songs.
Not that we're complaining, especially after defining moments like "Weightless Again" and Brett's heroic washboard molesting on the sorrowful "My Sister's Tiny Hands", but with "All The TVs In Town" they hit the ground running with "Twilight"s new songs and, feeding off a great, attentive crowd, ease into a string of numbers set to become epic.
There's the chilling "White Dog" - hypnotic despite Brett's super-silly axe hero poses; the chugging fatalism of "The Snow White Diner", with its' crystalline piano motif (tonight played by a bent-double Rennie); the macabre but side-splitting "So Long" (a lament for pets now gone!) and tonight's finest moment of all, "Passenger Pigeons", where THE HANDSOME FAMILY prove beyond all doubt that they can effortlessly transcend any of the cliches usually associated with the Alt.Country scene and just shred our emotions. And, yeah, you could've heard a pin drop during those four minutes.
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Rennie makes a quip about their "mission to make the whole world sad" but really they're acutely aware of their lineage and are carving out a special niche that flirts with much of the obvious C&W murder ballad standbys, but then adds a very distinctive spin indeed. To illustrate this, they close with a delicious version of the ancient "Banks Of The Ohio", every bit as gruesome lyrically as anything from Rennie's own pen.
Besides, with a gut stuffed full of stunning tunes, THE HANDSOME FAMILY are very welcome to stagger off into these backwoods any time they like. Just mind out for the bagshee, of course.
HANDSOME FAMILY Myrtleville set list.
1.SO MUCH WINE
2.DRUNK BY NOON
3.WEIGHTLESS AGAIN
4.COLD,COLD,COLD
5.GIANT OF ILLINOIS
6.A BEAUTIFUL THING
7.CATHEDRALS
8.DOWN IN THE GROUND
9.MY SISTER'S TINY HANDS
10.ARLENE
11.THE WHITE DOG
12.TIN FOIL
13.THE SAD MILKMAN
14.ALL THE TVs IN TOWN
15.PASSENGER PIGEONS
16.A DARK EYE
17.NO-ONE FELL ASLEEP ALONE
18.I KNOW YOU ARE THERE
19.THERE IS A SOUND
20.SO LONG
21.THE SNOW WHITE DINER
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22.MY GHOST
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23.DON'T BE SCARED (Brett solo acoustic)
24.BANKS OF THE OHIO.
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