Sparklehorse & Jesse Sykes
By DCist Contributor Mehan Jayasuriya
We here at DCist have noticed a rather disturbing trend recently. More and more often, it seems, touring bands are skipping over the District in favor of our neighbor to the north, Baltimore. It makes sense if you think about it: Baltimore has a burgeoning arts scene, a variety of music venues and a seemingly disproportionate reputation for housing a large number of twentysomething scenesters (not that we're short on any of those here). Normally, when an artist plays Baltimore instead of D.C., it's an occasion for us to furrow our brows and grumble loudly in disappointment. However, when the artist in question is the reclusive alt-country songwriter Mark Linkous -- known better by the nom de plume Sparklehorse -- it's time for a trip up to Charm City.
Linkous, you see, doesn't get out much. He confirmed this in an interview with WNYC radio earlier this week, claiming that on at least one occasion, he was unable to leave his home in the Smokey Mountains of North Carolina because there was a bear sitting in the back of his pickup truck. Traditionally, Sparklehorse has been a studio project: Linkous tends to hole up at "Static King," his home studio, with a few friends on occasion (past collaborators have included Thom Yorke, PJ Harvey, Tom Waits, Daniel Johnston and members of the Flaming Lips) and every few years, he emerges with an album. He seldom tours, rarely does interviews and generally keeps a low profile, in keeping with his shy demeanor. And until the release of last year's appropriately titled Dreamt For Light Years in the Belly of a Mountain, Linkous seemed to be in the midst of an unusually long hibernation. Hopefully this helps explain why we were more than willing to travel north of the District line to see him.
But for whatever reason, Sparklehorse was booked at the harbor-front venue Ram's Head Live! Belying its off-kilter, superfluously punctuated name, Ram's Head stands in stark contrast to the District's (or for that matter, Baltimore's other) delightfully dingy rock dives. Essentially, Ram's Head is what a rock club might look like if it was designed by Disney. Plasma screens displaying the performance litter the venue, so that you never even have to leave your seat at one of five bars or three "food stations." Attendants in the bathroom stand expectantly next to the tip jar, selling everything from cosmetics to condoms. And every surface in the 26,000 square foot space is bright, colorful and clean. Imagine the House of Blues, but even more sterile.
To their credit, opening act Jesse Sykes and the Sweet Hereafter tried their best to warm up the space. Sykes, a Seattle-based songwriter with an unusually rich and deep voice, has been garnering rave reviews for her latest record, Like, Love, Lust and the Open Halls of the Soul. Along with her backing band (featuring ex-Whiskeytown guitarist Phil Wandscher), Sykes offered up a set of mid-tempo, bluesy country that, judging by the large swaths of open space in front of the stage, didn't have the audience feeling too engaged. "Is this an all ages show?" Skyes asked, staring at some teenage girls in front of the stage. "Cause you folks sure are acting like it," Wandscher added.
By the time Sparklehorse hit the stage, however, the crowd had filled in with folks who had managed to wean themselves away from the brushed-metal bar. Opening with "Spirit Ditch" from 1995's cumbersomely named Vivadixiesubmarinetransmissionplot, Linkous slowly picked out reverb-soaked notes while singing in a distorted falsetto, "I woke up in a burned-out basement/Sleeping with metal hands/in a spirit ditch." Interestingly enough, he used two different mics: one as a clean channel and one for his trademark distorted vocals. Joining Linkous on stage was bassist Paula Jean Brown (formerly of Giant Sand), keyboardist/guitarist Chris Michaels, drummer Johnny Hott and inexplicably, a young, frizzy-haired girl in a green skirt (who, a little internet sleuthing revealed, is Hott's five-year-old daughter). Giving another nod to longtime fans, the band immediately followed up with the pedal steel lament "Heart of Darkness." Despite the track's slow gait, Hott pretended to drum along vigorously to the programmed drum track. Meanwhile, the little girl stood solemnly next to the drum kit, swaying back and forth.
You might think that Linkous' high-profile collaborations would be a liability live, but you would be wrong. In fact, Paula Jean Brown proved such a perfect foil for Linkous's Neil Young-like pipes that we didn't even feel PJ Harvey's absence on "Apple Bed." Meanwhile, "Hammering the Cramps" was alternately rocking and disorienting, making full use of its two guitar assault to pan between the left and right sides of the stage. "Don't Take My Sunshine Away," the opening number on Dreamt For Light Years in the Belly of a Mountain (and the only song the band would play from that album), found Linkous and Brown nailing pitch-perfect, and Beach Boys-esque harmonies in the chorus.
During a thick and heavy rendition of "Tears on Fresh Fruit," the little girl stepped forward to stand in line with Linkous. Wearing the aforementioned green skirt, a pint-sized Yoshitomo Nara t-shirt and black, open-toe wedges, she stood at the front of the stage, slowly shaking her hips and looking about as bored as a five year old can reasonably look. Linkous eventually introduced his band mates one by one and gestured to the girl, saying matter-of-factly "This here's Alyssa." Alyssa, meanwhile, was shaking her head at her mom, who stood at the side of the stage.
Just about the only misstep was the song that closed the set proper, the blazing punk romp "Pig" from 1999's Good Morning Spider. Not only was the live rendition too slow but Linkous's guitar seemed to be badly out of tune. The band went into a brief noise interlude in the middle of the song, culminating in a bit of heavily effected "Karma Police" style guitar squall—but an awkward pause before re-entry broke the spell. The band eventually reappeared for a brief encore, an excellent rendition of the poppy gem "Gold Day." "Good morning, my child/Stay with me a while," Linkous sang sweetly. "You've not got any place to be."
In conclusion, Sparklehorse exceeded our every expectation, delivering a solid set that heavily favored older material. Despite his shy, self-aware mannerisms, Linkous proved a formidable performer with an equally tight live band. Yeah, we still wish he had played the Black Cat instead. But that wouldn't have been nearly as kid-friendly.