Monday, March 10, 2008

Sam Amidon @ Mercury Lounge - Mar 09, 2008

All Is Well

Not too many times I decide to leave my home on a Sunday night, especially after having a cold the whole week, to go to see a show. Sam Amidon's All Is Well made such a good impression on me a couple of weeks ago that I got myself on my car to see him at the very intimate Mercury Lounge.


All Is Well sounds indeed like a very intimate album, perfect for the venue, and on it Sam sounds like if he was having monologues along all its 10 songs as a first-person narrator. Live it gets engaging. When he talks he sparks charisma all around, and when he hits the first notes on his guitar or tambourine, and take some distance from the mic, he suffers a transformation that transports everyone around to join him in his borrowed memories. As I read on Pitchfork, All Is Well is not all original by Sam, but he does embraces it like it was his own. It should be his own.


Sam has a lazy voice. He reminded me of ventriloquists. He has to give some good distance from his mic, still sounding loud enough, and by barely moving his mouth, he can make noises that might surprise you.

Most of the set was off All Is Well (I remember Little Johnny Brown, Saro, Oh Death), and the songs I didn't identify I guess they came from the other album I saw he was selling, But This Chicken Proves Falsehearted. For those of you who know him a bit better and have seen his cool, he didn't play any Tears for Fears cover, but he did play some imaginary drum set at the same time his invited drummer hit a real one. Ah, he also did some dumb-ass amateur breakdancing. Cute. [pics of the show]

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Were you at the show? How did you like it?


Samamidon Links: Stream All Is Well, Official Website, MySpace

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