I missed Vetiver, and sometimes collaborator, Devendra Banhart at Vegoose and Arthurfest. It made it even worse when, after Vegoose, I watched three live Devendra tracks which blew me away. One of those was Vetiver’s “Down at El Rio,” which has been stuck in my head ever since.
Monday Night Vetiver rolled into town in the midst of a mini tour along the west coast. This was the final night for friends and fellow freak folkers Espers and Feathers. The sold out show was a who’s who of the LA under-under ground. Arthur Magazine sponsored the tour so their contingent was rolling strong too. Everyone was abuzz about Arthurball which will be going down
at the Echo on Saturday, Feb. 25 and Sunday, Feb. 26.
I rolled up in time to catch the last few songs of Feathers. I really dug the upbeat song they played last and my friend Bill thought it was off their Tour Paint EP, so I picked it up. No such luck. Espers brought their clan up next and you could tell outright that it was gonna be folksy. I’m a fan of folk music but once it gets to the whisper and draggin’ pace, I generally lose interest. I tried to get into it, I swear. But after a while I just hung out in the very back with a Guinness and shot the sh*t with Ziegler about lining up a festival in Long Beach. Seemed that a lot of others were feeling the same, as displayed by the large gathering of people in the front sitting Indian style.
According to The Weekly, Devendra wasn’t playing with Vetiver on this tour, but I saw him outside earlier so I was a bit suspicious. I was cool with it even though I was itchin to hear the “El Rio” track and his swooning bird calls. Farmer Dave joined them on stage for the first part of the set and filled in some nice pedal steel sounds. Thankfully everyone was up off the floor for this set cuz there just wasn’t that much room in the main area and that’s where the sound is best. The set slowly picked up steam and when they broke into “Been So Long” I froze. I’m still not sure where I know that song from but it sure is a beaut. I just got down listening to the thirty second itunes teaser about five times. I guess I should just shell out for it, but I’ve never done that before. I don’t even have an ipod so that’s why it seems weird. The set kept getting a little more loose and upbeat then Devendra and some friends from the previous bands jumped up and pitched in some howls to “Amour fou,” better known by the chorus “she wanted love, crazy love.” It was obvious the set was about to end and I needed to go grab Bessy to swing her around front but I couldn’t leave because “El Rio” had finally arrived. I dug most of it from the back then right at the end made a mad dash down Sunset to fire up Bessy
Ok, I gave in and downloaded, and payed for it, like a good boy. Now is it unethical to upload it on a fake myspace account then add it to my profile so everyone hears it when they open my myspace page?
