by Jane Roser and Lauree McArdle
Hailing from Nashville and currently based in New York City, singer/songwriter Laura Cantrell recently kicked off a tour supporting Glaswegian band Camera Obscura and hit up DC’s 9:30 Club for a beautiful, ethereal evening.
Unfortunately, due to a broken escalator at L’Enfant Plaza, I missed my train and as a result, the first few songs in Cantrell’s set. Luckily, I had the pleasure of meeting Cantrell during the set break and she wrote the song names down for me (thanks Laura!).
Accompanied by the talented Mark Spencer on guitar and vocals, the night started off with three songs from Cantrell’s new album No Way There From Here, including “Can’t Wait”, “When It Comes To You” and “No Way There From Here”. Cantrell then dug into her 2011 tribute to Kitty Wells and sang the title track, “Kitty Wells Dresses”. Cantrell’s vocals were clear and strong; she has a beautiful way of conveying a story and you can’t help but be enraptured by her delivery.
“In 2004 I got invited to play at the great John Peel’s birthday party; he had hired a band and it was Camera Obscura. We had a great time that night and it’s so wonderful to see them get such a great response from the U.S.”. Cantrell performed “Glass Armour”, a song she co-wrote with Camera Obscura’s Tracyanne Campbell. “Tracyanne had just been to the dentist and the stuff they fill your teeth with is called glass armour. Who knew?” I always love to hear the inspirations behind songs, but even more so when they come out of seemingly nowhere and ‘glass armour’ certainly sounds more poetic than ‘fillings’.
Cantrell next sang “Letter She Sent”, a perfect song for a smoky bar, but since smoking was banned in DC’s night clubs years ago, the wafting dry ice more than made up for creating atmosphere. My friend, Tracy, whispered to me that Cantrell’s voice was “sweet and warm” and the audience appreciated her opening set, applauding enthusiastically. Ending with one of my favorite songs “Not The Tremblin’ Kind” off her 2000 album of the same name, I hung on every lyric: “No more promises, no more of your lies. No more wasted virtues, no more call at your tries. I may be a fugitive; I’m not runnin’ blind. Oh, no, no, no, I’m not the tremblin’ kind.”
The backdrop was a cloth with black trees and a full moon printed on it which is basically a recreation of their Desire Lines album cover; since Camera Obscura is from Scotland and I lived in Glasgow for a time, I couldn’t help but be reminded of Macbeth (“Macbeth shall never vanquish’d be until Great Birnam wood to high Dunsinane hill shall come against him”). The carousel of colors bathing the backdrop; yellow, red, blue and purple, gave the stage a dreamlike quality and perfectly set the tone for the music to come.
An organ played as Camera Obscura came onstage. Lead singer Tracyanne Campbell could be Zooey Deschanel’s doppelganger and I loved her melodic voice, although the vocal clarity got lost somewhat, but that could just be because I was standing in the back of the room. A cornucopia of instruments were used tonight, some of which I’ve never seen at a rock concert (a triangle? How cool is that?) and the line-up included Carey Lander on keys, Kenny McKeeve on guitar, Gavin Dunbar on bass and Lee Thomson on drums.
“It’s great to be back at the 9:30 Club,” Campbell said in a thick, beautiful accent. “It’s one of the best gigs in the world.”
Camera Obscura mainly performed songs from their last three albums, and mostly from last year’s Desire Lines. Their set was perfect for a breezy, dreamy summer’s night, especially the slower songs with pedal steel guitar that really got the crowd dancing.
Opening with “Break It To You Gently” and “New Year’s Resolution”, the audience was bouncing along and Tracy somehow managed to dance at the bar with a chicken sandwich in her hand. Props there! “Let’s Get Out Of This Country” from their 2006 album of the same name was next followed by “Forests And Sands” off 2009’s Maudlin Career. This song started off with a cool drum intro with Campbell switching from electric to acoustic guitar and had a cool, twangy sound to it. With the first few notes of “Desire Lines” played, the audience started screaming in anticipation. This is a lovely haunting song with a frank ending: “Well, every day do what you can. And if you let them turn you ’round, whatever goes up must come down.”
“Honey In The Sun” kicked it up a notch with a trumpet; the diversity of instruments, including shakers and tambourines is refreshing and helps accent individual songs perfectly. This song got some of the most screams from the crowd.
“French Navy”, “This Is Love”, “Cri Du Coeur” and “Every Weekday” were played and then Campbell introduced 2006’s “Country Mile” as “here’s a blast from the past.” Blue lights bathed the room and bright stars lit the backdrop and disco ball on the ceiling. Lots of couples were swaying along to this one.
“Do It Again” is a fun, energetic number and once this song started, a rush of girls broke through the crowd by the bar and headed as far up to the stage as they could (which given the mass of people here, was not very far).
The band went straight into the next song, “If Looks Could Kill” and the audience starts clapping along to the beat, with their hands in the air and dancing their asses off. I would say by this point everyone was thrilled with the set list choices for the evening.
“Lloyd, I’m Ready To Be Heartbroken” (great title!) was really intense and made me start craving chili chocolate pudding for some reason. “I’m sorry to say that this is our last song,” Campbell said before going into “My Maudlin Career”, another song which garnered another huge favorable audience response.
Before the encores began, the house lights turned on and the crowd started waving to the band. “Thanks so much, we really appreciate it,” said Campbell, thanking Cantrell, too before launching into the funky “Come Back Margaret” which the audience clapped along to in unison. “Books Written For Girls” and “Razzle Dazzle Rose” finished out the evening and elicited some screams when the first few notes were played.
Camera Obscura started in 1996 and are still drawing fans of all ages to their shows (I saw college kids all the way up to a grey-haired elderly woman walking with a cane), proving that they still know how to put the dazzle in their razzle.
