Eleni Mandell Beats Out Mellow at IOTA

A couple of weeks back, we found ourselves at IOTA paying $10 to see two bands we were previously unfamiliar with (Iowa City's Death Ships and Chapel Hill's The Old Ceremony). The experience left us feeling satisfied and slightly adventurous. We wanted to make a regular habit of checking out bands based on 30-second clips and "borrowed" tracks from elbo.ws. And that's partly why we were at IOTA last night to see mellow Canadian folksters Great Lake Swimmers and Los Angeles-based singer/songwriter Eleni Mandell. Once again, we weren't disappointed.

Headliners Great Lake Swimmers put on a decent show and the crowd seemed to go crazy after every song, which is bizarre when you think about people getting so worked up after hearing music driven largely by a banjo, harmonica and acoustic guitar. That's like ripping off your shirt at a James Taylor concert. Our major problem with Great Lake Swimmers was singer Tony Dekker's constant falsetto. With the exception of a couple of acoustic songs in the middle of the set — including the cleverly titled "Backstage with the Modern Dancers," which had a back story that was more interesting than the song itself — Dekker's vocal work made the songs blend together, putting us into a mellow stupor. But a couple of upbeat songs, including "Your Rocky Spine" off the new record, Ongiara, were fun enough to keep us from writing the band off completely.