americana gigs: damien jurado, john vanderslice, richmond fontaine

a few weeks back, i had a run of americana-type gigs with bands that i'd heard little or nothing of beforehand.

first of all there was richmond fontaine. i was on a trip to zurich to visit friends and we went an ace little venue called el lokal. it is an odd shape place, but we managed to sit on the stairs and so had a good view of the stage and the lovely flower-shaped fairy lights.... a wonderful way to spend my last night in zurich. funny, though, listening to the lead singer chat between songs, cos it was like he'd never been out of his hometown before. this from a guy who's band has had 10+ albums and no doubt toured the world more than a few times...

the day or so after i got back to leeds, i could be found at my trusted 'local' (the brudenell) to see damien jurado, john vanderslice and honour before glory (no photos of his set...too busy listening; lovely new mazzy star cover added to the hbg repetoire). i had heard one or two tracks of john vanderslice on last.fm but didn't know much about him apart from hearing from two people i know during the week of the gig telling me that he's the nicest person ever. i enjoyed his set, particularly when the band came troubadour style down into the audience! lovely. (a couple of other shots on flickr.)

next up, damien jurado. one man and his guitar; little did i know as he took to the stage what affect he'd have on me. i only took a couple of shots during his set, but i think this one is quite apt, as he certainly did have an affect on my mind after the first few songs, when he started conversing with the audience. i was totally transfixed, and i was transported to some other era with the story telling in his songs. quite something. amazing gig! later on, i discovered the photos that sarah jurado (damien's manager and wife, and amazing photographer) took on the tour, which can be seen on her website here.

i love the colours in this shot. and i love the blurriness. in fact, i have just set up a set on flickr dedicated to 'blurry lovelyness' (it makes me smile) as somewhere to gather all my out-of-focus photos. it can be seen by clickety clicking here.

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