Cory Chisel & the Wandering Sons was the first show I wrote about on this blog back in February when they played at this same venue on the first date of their tour with Dawes and Jason Boesel. On this Monday night it was their second to last date of the current tour and Cory and Adriel were playing as a duo, opening for a band from Seattle called Telekenisis. I showed up early and alone and Cory and Adriel were doing a bit of soundcheck. How I would love to see them play on a good soundsystem. I sat at the bar and sipped a Green Flash IPA and talked to some folks. There wasn't 20 people in the whole bar and nobody I spoke to had ever heard of Cory Chisel. I bought a copy of "Death Don't Send A Letter" on vinyl and we chatted for a while before their set. Cory and Adriel are certainly some of the warmest and most gracious people I have ever met. They remembered my wife and son, and wanted to hear all about my goings on. They suggested I play tambourine tonight and I thought that was a joke. We talked about J. Tillman, Preservation Hall, My Morning Jacket and Carl Broemel, how much we liked Jason Boesel's record, and how everyone is moving to Nashville.
The staff seemed a bit nervous that nobody was there yet, but Cory didn't. He smoked cigarettes and drank red wine and laughed saying, "time to go to work". And then people magically showed up. All of a sudden there was 30+ people in the bar and we crowded in to stand face to face with them. Without the band, it was all about the words and that voice. Adriel is so airy and pure, and Cory's voice is as honest and limber as you could hope for. They seem to be slightly at odds with the fact that their songs are so very sad and emotionally barring. Cory looked at me and said, "Glad we have a friend out there tonight". They played "My Heart Would Be There", then "Calm Down", and a fantastic "Tennessee". They made good on their threat with the tambourine and I banged it out through an awesome "Born Again". The "So Wrong For Me" was sweet. The absolute highlight of the set was the closing song, Tom Waits "Rosie" from Closing Time. Oh my god! So killer! You can tell they are just loving playing this song and Adriel plays the piano part so well. I've never heard them play anything that jazzy and it just worked. Apparently they have been playing this song for years: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M3ukudwxqcA
Telekinesis seemed to be a fun bunch of guys... especially the drummer. The guitarist had a rocking Rickenbacker sound. I just wasn't in the mood for the rock though. I sat outside with Cory and Adriel and talked about Tom Waits for a while. The moon was shining through shrouds of mist as I walked to my car and the smell of the sea was grand.
(later..)
I found this awesome video of Cory and Adriel by Baeblemusic
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