An exciting prospect,this. A hastily-inserted extra date on a day off in the tour schedule finds Bostonians WILLARD GRANT CONSPIRACY here in Myrtleville's incresingly cool Pine Lodge the night before their scheduled Cork date at The Lobby.
Firstly, though, an unexpected bonus. A veteran of the vicious New York punk rawk scene with LIVE SKULL, UZI and COME, THALIA ZEDEK steps up with just a black'n'white guitar, plus skirling violin and piano courtesy of the Willards and proceeds to claw at our heartstrings with half a dozen highlights from her cruelly-ignored recent Matador album, "Been Here And Gone."
Clad entirely in black (naturally), Thalia sings songs of heady experience with a wracked husk of a voice and, while we're soon drifting out into deep emotional waters her, she offers us enough light with the shade to get us back to the shore on occasion
Obvious high points are her takes on Leonard Cohen's "Dance Me To The End Of Love" and the seductive, Latin-tinged "Manha De Carnaval", originally the theme from "The Black Orpheus". You may not recall the celluloid, but you will remember the tune. Really.
And you should remember to catch WILLARD GRANT CONSPIRACY the next time they're in a shoe box close to you. Now four albums in, this Boston-based conglomerate can number up to 24 on record, including luminaries like ex-SUGAR drummer Malcolm Travis and members of LAMBCHOP. Tonight it's the compact five-piece version; vocalist/prime mover Robert Fisher, plus guitar, violin, piano and from LAMBCHOP, Dennis Cronin on trumpet, melodica and tiny glockenspiel.
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Needless to say, there ain't much in the happy-clappy hooks department, but there's a whole lotta heartbreakin' goin' on. Indeed, minus some of the trappings of the recorded WGC web of sound, these songs stand naked and wonderfully vulnerable.
It's virtually all impressive. There's the lonely piano chords tht frame the longing in anti-anthem "Massachussetts"; the "experiment in writing a pop song" that is "Soft Hands" and the everlasting sadness of "Suffering Will Come To Us All", during which you really could hear a pin drop.
There's three deserved encores. Fisher initially loses the band and does the acoustic spot, regaling us with tales of snake-handling midwest ministers en route, before the whole band return for the moving call'n'response finale that is "Dig A Hole."
Passive and informal, WILLARD GRANT CONSPIRACY turned tonight into a downhome, front porch treat and a special ceremonial indeed. Due to be recorded in Slovenia with a twenty-piece band, the new album should certainly be a calendar entry. Remember where you read about it first!
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