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With all of the Shes & Hims out there with their male troubadour leading the non-musician ingenue by the hand, Isobel Campbell & Mark Lanegan are a refreshing change of pace. She, in this case, is the Scottish former cellist and singer of Belle And Sebastian and the creative force of this duo. He is the former lead singer of the Screaming Trees and accomplished solo artist content to follow Campbell through her interpretation of American folk music.
On stage, they really play up the angle of Campbell being the angelic figure bathed in purple light while Lanegan is the perhaps demonic mystery man shrouded in darkness. Based on the difference between their voices, it is a logical conclusion. Lanegan’s stage presence calls back to early Jim Morrison, standing in one place with his eyes closed. Early on, Campbell seems uneasy, staring off into space. Now, most of these songs don’t exactly inspire a full-tilt boogie, but she certainly did appear nervous.
After going through a half dozen songs, (including the excellent “You Won’t Let Me Down Again,” and “Come Undone,” from the latest album, Hawk, and “Who Built The Road,” from Sunday At Devil Dirt) Lanegan gets his time to shine, crooning his way through “The Circus Is Leaving Town,” from the duo’s stellar debut Ballad Of The Broken Seas. He then promptly left the stage in kind of a momentum killer. Enter opening act Willy Mason to perform the two Townes Van Zandt covers from Hawk and an original with Campbell and the rest of the band. Mason is just too country for my taste with a voice not unlike Jeff Bridges’s in his portrayal of Bad Blake in Crazy Heart.
Campbell then takes center stage (though never actually leaves the left side of the stage) and rights the ship with the highlight of the night: three chords of the saddest, yet beautiful variety with Hawk‘s “To Hell & Back Again,”. Perhaps Campbell’s uneasiness is warranted because that song is just plain emotional. She is the center of attention at this point and she still seems nervous but she is funny and very charming. After a lovely performance of “Saturday’s Gone”, Lanegan returns for “Back Burner,” which Campbell uses as an excuse to empty her percussion back of tricks. They follow up with the salacious “Come On Over (Turn Me On),” and finish with the big band jam “Get Behind Me,”.
For the encore, we actually get a double dose of Lanegan-penned tracks with “Revolver,” and “Wedding Dress,” (from Lanegan’s 2004 classic Bubblegum) along with the fantastic cover of Hank Williams’s “Ramblin’ Man,”. The entire set is filled with tempo changes with subjects regularly alternating between tales of salvation and sexuality. Even with Lanegan leaving for half an hour, (“locked in a dungeon” as Campbell mused) the duo more than deliver.
P.S. Thank you to you, nameless Chicago cab driver, for dooring my photographer and cheating the readers out of pictures.
