Mt. Eerie with Wyrd Visions (and another band I didn’t see)
Over the Top Festival, Sneaky Dee’s
May 6th, 2007
By Kerry Freek
From the beginning, the mood was a little off last Sunday. I met some visiting and heavy-hearted friends at a cafe in Kensington, and the mood spread thickly even though I was wearing a rainbow lollipop dress, donned to help said mood. We stopped for tea and coffee and made our way to Sneaky Dee’s.
We missed the first act, but arrived just in time for Wyrd Visions: Colin Bergh playing guitar, singing about ancient times and nature, and wearing a big sweater-thingy over skinny pants. Bergh’s music is entrancing, and perfect for a good number of settings, like nighttime campfires, or hazy, drugged-up summer picnics. Or a sit-down show at Sneaky Dee’s with the sun streaming through the windows, sprinkling a docile Sunday afternoon all-ages crowd.
Wyrd Visions played three or four songs, each one lasting about ten minutes before blending into the next. After the last time that Bergh chanted “W-Y-R-D-V-I-S-I-O-N-S across the sky,” some happy hip-hop intermission beats started up, snapping us out of our collective trance. Nice juxtaposition, deejay.
Today, Mt. Eerie was comprised of Phil Elverum (formerly The Microphones) and his guests, locals Steve Kado (of a trillion bands) and Jesse James Laderoute (whom I stalked after the show to find out that he’s from The Incidentals). Though Elverum was clearly instructing the other two how to play the song prior to the song itself, the band conveyed an electric Neil Young-ish feel and rocked the impromptu vibe. In fact, I felt the need to punch my friend Josh in the arm out of excitement.
Because I hadn’t listened to it beforehand (being mainly familiar with The Glow Pt. 2, an album under the Microphones moniker), I didn’t know much of Elverum’s Mt. Eerie work, with or without the band. As he headed to solo, acoustic songs, I expected really raw, painful, baring-my-soul kind of stuff. Instead, Elverum played a lot of straight-to-the-point ditties condemning stupid behaviour (“Where’s the rebellion in acting like a fuck-up?”), lack of sociability (“Get off the internet”) and smoking (“Improve yourself right now”). Cute and poignant, but not the Phil Elverum I know.
There were, however, some great, literate stories about blood and stab wounds and loneliness. Lots of food-word combinations and usage – even some extra sounds added to vocals to enhance the narration, like a crashing sound as he sang the words “the door blew down.” Super-mega points for covering “Undo” by Bjork.
End note: Not really what I was expecting, but worthwhile nonetheless.
Wyrd Visions can be found at myspace.com/wyrdvisions, but Phil Elverum is too cool for that. Look for him and all his projects are found here pwelverumandsun.com
