Camera Obscura / Essex Green Rollcall

I wasn't dazzled by C.O. at Iota a couple years back, but they were a big hit at SxSW last year.

I haven't seen Essex Green, but love their albums and think they should put on an energetic show.

No one thinks this show is selling out, do you?

I'll be there.

So what's Essex Green like? More of the same?

If you mean more of the same as Camera Obscura, I don't think so. Essex Green is livelier, with some power pop energy amidst their psychedelic indie. It's brighter…if that makes any sense.

Camera Obscura 10:00PM essentially means 10:30 at the earliest. I have work at 8am in Baltimore, dammit! Still coming though. :)

Actually, 10:00 typically means 10:00, at least at the 9:30 Club.

10pm almost always means 10pm (or within 5 mins or so)

i have no idea about the sell-out, i'm always so horrible at predicting the popularity of shows … i have a couple of friends coming who are buying tickets at the door, so i hope not

bags is right, essex green doesn't sound much like camera obscura at all, much more of a neo-psych power-pop feel to them, and i'd say they have a more diverse sound than camera obscura

i'm really angry that i've missed the last two CO shows in the area, i'm glad i could make it to this one

eddie says there will be tickets available at the door. (see the FAQ page)

I imagine that means little chance of a sellout.

I'll see you folks there. I'm still annoyed at myself for passing on The Dears Saturday night, there's no way I'm missing this one.

ok, so i preface this by saying that i've never seen camera obscura live before, and i understand that they were criticized in past DC shows for being too boring / predictable in their performances

i think they put together a fantastic set tonight, starting with some slower songs, speeding up to a fantastic four song mini-set of (1) "let's get out of this country", (2) "lloyd", (3) ??, (4) "suspended from class" … that little mini-set of relatively upbeat songs in the middle of the set was really great, and a nice change from bands who save their most poppy/well-known songs for the end of the set/encore

essex green was good, but didn't live up to expectations … their gram parsons cover worked really well, i thought they were kind of in a twangy/country-rock mood the whole time

I was one of the (very few) people who criticized Camera Obscura after their show at the Black Cat last July. More accurately, I criticized Camera Obscura's lead singer, Tracyanne, who came across as someone who didn't want to be performing at all. It's not that I or the audience was bored; it was Tracyanne who came across as the one who was bored. On that night in July, she elevated indifference to aloofness, and she was even kind of bitchy toward the Black Cat audience at times. I found it to be a real turn-off. In my post-show post, I conjectured that maybe she was just having a bad day or not feeling well or was tired from touring too much. Overall, I felt that Camera Obscura could perform better. Others who attended the same concert disagreed with my assessments on all points.

Fast forward six months. I'm happy to report that Camera Obscura put on an excellent show at the 9:30 Club. The sound mix (for CO) was well done. Much better than the Black Cat show all around, both in terms of performance and sound. There was still an air of indifference around Tracyanne, but not as much hostility, though she did get a little hostile when she responded to the heckler who wanted to hear the "good stuff." "What have we been playing? The crap stuff?" she retorted. Overall, her audience interaction was much improved. She nearly floored me when she actually smiled as she left the stage after the encore. Normally, I think she performs as though she were at a funeral. I suppose it's possible she was smiling just because it was over. I'd like to think she was smiling because she was satisfied with a job well done and was appreciative of the applause.

Sorry if I helped to over-hype The Essex Green. I still think they are the bee's knees though. Maybe their live show isn't exactly scintillating, but I love-love-love their lyrics, their melodies, and their harmonies. For the most part, they sounded a lot like their albums. Only a couple songs at the end differed much at all, notably "Sin City" (not necessarily improved, I think) and the final song of the set whose name is escaping me at the moment (which was "rocked up" to close the set). For what it's worth, their sound mix was way off on a lot of the songs. As you may know, some of their songs have female lead vocals and some have male lead vocals, while trading off background vocals, and the sound engineer obviously couldn't keep up as to who was lead and who was background on which songs. There were several songs toward the end of their set where the male background vocals were louder than the female lead vocals.

Overall show grade: Very good, but I don't expect it to be on anyone's list of the best shows of the year, certainly not mine. Camera Obscura exceeded my expectations. The Essex Green fell a little short, but they came close to meeting my expectations, I think.

Camera Obscura was doing an in studio on KEXP and the interviewer asked the singer chick a question about appearing on the album cover of "Let's Get Out of this Country"…which features a rather homely redhead…

The singer rather annoyedly pointed out, "That's not me on the album cover."

it was better than the black cat show because the sound was a lot better, people weren't talking through the whole thing and it was smoke free. tracyanne just is the way she is. have you listened to the lyrics to her songs? she's not a bright, bubbly person and if she acted that way then it would make either her behavior or the songs seem dishonest. personally i find it charming and think she's just the most adorable thing in the world. that stretch in the middle when they played all the upbeat songs was very good, a few of them lose a bit without the backing vocals or string flourishes, but they pulled it all off well enough. they play the kind of music that makes it almost impossible to deliver a revelatory show, but they did what they do as well as they could, if that makes sense.

the essex green were b-o-r-i-n-g. decent enough records, but a real yawner last night.

It has been my experience over the past few years that the sound at the black cat totally sucks, unless Shellac is playing there.

I thought the Essex Green's jokes were better than their performance, really.

CO was a bit boring too, I must admit. I mean, yeah, all the songs sounded good. Really good. But boring. Really, who'd pick that utter yawner 'Country mile' as part of the encore?

I wish the crowd would have at least sung along to a couple of the more popular songs. I mean, it's been 6+ months since LGOOTC came out. Surely more than 10 people know the lyrics to Hey loyd by now…

essex green was ok. their songs were indeed really catchy and were "cute"(?). ive only heard a few of their songs before, and was really looking forward to seeing them the way this board was hyping them.

i still dont know what to make of that camera obscura set. on the one hand i loved it because the musicanship was really sharp. the arrangement of their set list was surprisingly effective. the drums and keyboards werent overpowering, the bass was articulate and not mushy, and the guitars were crisp, allowing for us to actually hear the vocals.

yet, i was very underwhelmed with the vocals. tracyann just didnt sound that good to me. kind of like nina persson. theyre both amazing in studio, but live, somethings lacking; it might have something to do with their really somber stage presence.

CO was technically good but lacked energy. A bit of a letdown. The whole affected disinterest thing by Tracyann is just not compelling. At least she's not badly drawn boy. she rehearses and is sober and plays the music very well.

It's not an either/or thing, to be gloomy or energetic. Lots of performers out-gloom Tracyann but bring soul into the performance.

Essex Green were better. They didn't blow the roof off the mothesucka but they were alive. I left the show being a little more interested in Essex Green and a little less in Tracyann.