{"id":17298,"date":"2013-06-25T07:25:59","date_gmt":"2013-06-25T15:25:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thelefortreport.com\/blog\/?p=17298"},"modified":"2013-09-26T09:26:29","modified_gmt":"2013-09-26T17:26:29","slug":"review-of-iron-wines-church-show-in-la-623-watch-on-last-nights-jimmy-kimmel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thelefortreport.com\/blog\/2013-06\/review-of-iron-wines-church-show-in-la-623-watch-on-last-nights-jimmy-kimmel\/","title":{"rendered":"Review of Iron &#038; Wine&#8217;s Church Show in LA 6\/23&#8211;Watch on Last Night&#8217;s Jimmy Kimmel"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.thelefortreport.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/IronWineChurchShow.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-large wp-image-17308\" alt=\"Iron&amp;WineChurchShow\" src=\"https:\/\/www.thelefortreport.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/IronWineChurchShow-650x399.jpg\" width=\"635\" height=\"389\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.thelefortreport.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/IronWineChurchShow-650x399.jpg 650w, https:\/\/www.thelefortreport.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/IronWineChurchShow-150x92.jpg 150w, https:\/\/www.thelefortreport.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/IronWineChurchShow-450x276.jpg 450w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 635px) 100vw, 635px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>The great<strong> Sam Beam<\/strong> brought his <a href=\"http:\/\/www.ironandwine.com\/\"><strong>Iron &amp; Wine<\/strong><\/a> in all it&#8217;s transformed, <strong>13-member<\/strong> glory to Los Angeles to play an intimate show on Sunday at the <strong>First Unitarian Church<\/strong> in MacArthur Park and to perform last night on the <strong>Jimmy Kimmel Show<\/strong>, all in support of the band&#8217;s superb new album, <strong>Ghost On Ghost<\/strong>.\u00a0 Suffice it to say that this incarnation of <strong>Iron &amp; Wine<\/strong> is the best yet, and they gave one of the most soulful, rocking concerts we&#8217;ve seen in recent memory.\u00a0 <strong>Iron &amp; Wine<\/strong> has dramatically evolved from <strong>Beam&#8217;s solo guitar origins<\/strong> into a species of a whole different order.\u00a0 While there are plenty who lament the more intimate side of Beam&#8217;s confessional songs, at the<strong> Church Show<\/strong> there were hallelujahs all around.<\/p>\n<p>As an intro to our review of the <strong>&#8220;Church Show&#8221;<\/strong> on Sunday, check out last night&#8217;s well-captured performances.\u00a0 Just like they did at the <strong>Church Show<\/strong>,<strong> Iron &amp; Wine<\/strong> opened on <strong>Kimmel<\/strong> with <em><strong>Desert Babbler<\/strong><\/em>. The song&#8217;s lyrics are obviously apt: &#8220;California&#8217;s gonna kill you soon&#8230;Black houses in the hills and roadside hearts.&#8221; Listen to the performance below as Beam sings and exhorts like a Sunday choir leader.\u00a0 Next up was the graceful call-and-response of <em><strong>Grace For Saints and Sinners.\u00a0<\/strong><\/em><strong>\u00a0<\/strong> Both songs&#8217; worthwhile lyrics are at bottom.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/www.hulu.com\/embed.html?eid=2dw7828utqrvu6vsbci1ga&amp;partner=wenner&amp;url=http%3a%2f%2fwww.hulu.com%2fwatch%2f504466\" height=\"425\" width=\"625\" allowfullscreen=\"\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/www.hulu.com\/embed.html?eid=2ixmw0x7jna_20yxetztfg&amp;partner=wenner&amp;url=http%3a%2f%2fwww.hulu.com%2fwatch%2f504465\" height=\"425\" width=\"625\" allowfullscreen=\"\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>The<strong> First Unitarian Church<\/strong> was an ideal place to see <strong>Iron &amp; Wine<\/strong> in all its manifold glory.\u00a0 Though the sound took some continuous dialing, the intimate venue was perfect for this band.\u00a0 The large band consisted of Beam and four threes (three backup singers, string trio, three strutting, scatting horn players, and a rhythm section consisting of bass, drums and keys).\u00a0 And great joy was had by <strong>Beam<\/strong> and the beaming crowd.\u00a0 The singers and horn players danced most of the night when they weren&#8217;t getting serious, and Beam paid tribute to his father by explaining how his dad contributed mightily to the Motown-Stax sounds emanating from the stage.\u00a0 It&#8217;s obviously no coincidence that most of the songs from the new album also reflect the band&#8217;s large look and feel, with its big band sound and bountiful production.<\/p>\n<p>Beam and the band opened swinging hard with a superb collection of songs from the new and last albums (including <em><strong>Tree By The River<\/strong><\/em> from <strong>Kiss Each Other Clean<\/strong>), along with a rapturous rendition of <strong>The Postal Service&#8217;s <em>Such Great Heights<\/em><\/strong>.\u00a0 Beam was his usual humorous, endearing self throughout, and introduced\u00a0<em><strong>Monkeys Uptown<\/strong><\/em><strong> <\/strong>by stating that God and he had come to an agreement to let him play the song, which contains several f-bombs.\u00a0\u00a0 After the full Motown revival opening set, however, Beam smartly had the band take a break and went back in time on solo guitar to gave the more nostalgic crowd members a marvelous five-song <strong>&#8220;Iron &amp; Wine Medley&#8221;<\/strong> (as he dubbed it) featuring <em><strong>Lion&#8217;s Mane, Woman King, Jesus the Mexican Boy<\/strong><\/em>, the much-loved cover of <strong>New Order&#8217;s<\/strong> <em><strong>Love Vigilantes<\/strong><\/em>, and, best of all, <em><strong>Sodom, South Georgia<\/strong><\/em>.\u00a0 The latter brought goosebumps aplenty.<\/p>\n<p>But these would not be the only older songs <strong>Iron &amp; Wine<\/strong> would play.\u00a0 <strong>Beam<\/strong> also employed new arrangements of several of the older<strong> Iron &amp; Wine favorites<\/strong>, including rearranged versions of <em><strong>Passing Afternoon<\/strong><\/em> (accompanied only by the three horns), <em><strong>Jezebel, Caught in the Briars,<\/strong><\/em> and <em><strong>Upward Over the Mountain<\/strong><\/em> (accompanied just by the string trio).\u00a0 The band closed with an absolutely rousing version of a song that, in all honesty, we had not given its proper due&#8211;the epic <em><strong>Your Fake Name is Good Enough For Me<\/strong><\/em><strong>\u00a0<\/strong>(from 2011&#8217;s <strong>Kissing Each Other Clean<\/strong>).\u00a0 If you, like us, have not focused on this song, now&#8217;s the time and particularly live.\u00a0 It is one for the ages.\u00a0 At the song&#8217;s finish, the crowd was on its feet (for the first time) in appreciation.<\/p>\n<p>After that perfect set-closer, Beam would come out for only one more song, a song many in the crowd (guilty) had loudly requested during his solo medley&#8211;<em><strong>The Trapeze Swinger<\/strong><\/em>.\u00a0 This epic song has become one of<strong> Iron &amp; Wine&#8217;s<\/strong> most beloved songs despite not appearing on any of the studio albums (featured in the film <strong>In Good Company\u00a0<\/strong>and as a part of the fantastic compilation of unreleased tracks entitled <strong>All Around the Well<\/strong>).\u00a0 Beam complained a bit about playing the song, saying that he had taken a break from performing the song after &#8220;performing it every night for seven years.&#8221;\u00a0 A quick review of the band&#8217;s setlists this year confirmed that<strong> Beam<\/strong> had only played the song one time this year until last night, making the<strong> Church Show<\/strong> a particularly memorable show.\u00a0 Employing some of the best wordplay and imagery ever put to song, the song never fails to enthrall us.\u00a0 And this night it put an end to any early-departers&#8217; ideas of leaving.\u00a0 You can watch the song below <strong>as performed at the Church Show<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>It was a perfect way to end a perfect night of live music and song from <strong>Iron &amp; Wine<\/strong>.\u00a0 Do whatever you have to do to catch this band live.\u00a0 Their remaining tour dates can be found <a href=\"http:\/\/www.ironandwine.com\/tour\"><strong>HERE<\/strong><\/a>, including a Halloween show at the <strong>Orpheum in LA<\/strong>, and at the Fox Theater in Oakland on November 1st.<\/p>\n<p>Listen below to <em><strong>The Trapeze Swinger<\/strong><\/em> closer.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/NRIC-h45-KI\" height=\"425\" width=\"625\" allowfullscreen=\"\" frameborder=\"0\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><em><strong>Desert Babbler<\/strong><\/em>:<\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s New Year&#8217;s Eve<br \/>\nAnd California&#8217;s gonna kill you soon<br \/>\nThe Barstow boys<br \/>\nBuckeyes in the shadow of the moon<\/p>\n<p>Black houses in the hills and roadside hearts<br \/>\nDying for a place to fall apart<br \/>\nWho knew what you could learn to live without<br \/>\nMother Mary&#8217;s lying in your mouth<\/p>\n<p>Back home the kitchen&#8217;s warm with Christmas wine<br \/>\nAnd every girl has got an axe to grind<br \/>\nYou left to look for heaven<br \/>\nBut you&#8217;re far from that hard light tonight<\/p>\n<p>So quietly we&#8217;ve lost another year<br \/>\nThe desert put a babbler in your ear<br \/>\nMean fireweed and I miss you again<br \/>\nBarstow boys are spit into the wind<\/p>\n<p>Back home the hammer always has to fall<br \/>\nCrosses barely hanging on the wall<br \/>\nSomeday I know you&#8217;ll never leave me<br \/>\nBut we&#8217;re far from that hard light tonight<\/p>\n<p><em><strong>Grace for Saints and Sinners<\/strong><\/em>:<\/p>\n<p>But it all came down to you and I<br \/>\nBut it all came down to you and I<\/p>\n<p>There were banged up heads stealing first base<br \/>\nUnderneath the tables so we never said grace<br \/>\nFalling out of bed for the workday week<br \/>\nThere was kissing in the cracks of the flashflood street<br \/>\nThere were budding blossoms blaring Johnny Rotten<br \/>\nChewed up and swallowed by the prophet they were trying to follow<br \/>\nPicked too green, and we paid no tax on our quick romantic cul-de-sac<\/p>\n<p>But it all came down to you and I<br \/>\nBut it all came down to you and I<\/p>\n<p>There were crashed out cars in our bar code clothes<br \/>\nThere was rubbing on each other, rubbing ghost on ghost<br \/>\nThere were junked up punks and the Jesus freaks<br \/>\nWeaving in and out of trouble, wrapping &#8217;round and &#8217;round a leash<br \/>\nThere were sleepless dreamers, doomsday preachers<br \/>\nThe message and the messenger, the gun beneath the register<br \/>\nThe sweet gum tree by the though drunk tank<br \/>\nWe could never give enough to the bad blood bank<br \/>\nThere were hopeless sinners, sweepstake winners<br \/>\nThey danced with the farmer\u2019s daughter, capered with the corporate lawyers<\/p>\n<p>But it all came down to you and I<br \/>\nBut it all came down to you and I<br \/>\nBut it all came down to you and I<br \/>\nBut it all came down to you and I<\/p>\n<p>There was laughing in the light sugar in the shade<br \/>\nThere were backstab handshakes made on faith<br \/>\nWe were never out of time and we&#8217;d never entertain<br \/>\nAnybody say the habit of the wind was going to change<br \/>\nThere were misled misfits, teething biscuits<br \/>\nFountains full of penny wishes, potties full of pretty fishes<br \/>\nSide by side with the birds and bees<br \/>\nAnd we never said grace and never ever took a knee<br \/>\nWith the saints and ramblers, movie star handlers<br \/>\nHigh above the aviary, underneath the cemetery<br \/>\nAnd we never wondered why, because the sun was in our eyes<br \/>\nThere was seed for the field, there was grease for the wheel<br \/>\nWe were drinking with the luminaries, eaten with the missionaries<\/p>\n<p>But it all came down to you and I<br \/>\nBut it all came down to you and I<br \/>\nBut it all came down to you and I<br \/>\nBut it all came down to you and I<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The great Sam Beam brought his Iron &amp; Wine in all it&#8217;s transformed, 13-member glory to Los Angeles to play an intimate show on Sunday at the First Unitarian Church in MacArthur Park and to perform last night on the Jimmy Kimmel Show, all in support of the band&#8217;s superb new album, Ghost On Ghost.\u00a0 [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17298","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-music"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelefortreport.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17298","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelefortreport.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelefortreport.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelefortreport.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelefortreport.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17298"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelefortreport.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17298\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelefortreport.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17298"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelefortreport.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17298"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelefortreport.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17298"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}