Iron & Wine Whining

So Iron & Wine have a new album, "The Shepard's Dog." Though I have the new CD, I've only listened to it once, so I can't really review it. I will say that it's a bit of departure from Sam Beam's earlier stuff. A little busier instrumentally, and a lot of faster songs. Not a bad change of pace necessarily, but definitely different.
This post is more for the I&W show I saw last night at the Orpheum here in Boston. I don't have the set list...sorry. He played mostly new songs and I'm not familiar with them enough. What's more, the Orpheum was not the place to see a show like this. Though I'm very grateful to my sister for giving me tickets for my b-day, this show didn't hold a candle to when I saw Beam at ACL last year. Here's why:

--As previously mentioned, he played very few old songs. This is understandable when you have a new album out, but still...

--The lyrics were virtually unintelligible, at least partly due to where we were sitting. We were in the orchestra section, under the balcony, putting what I'm pretty sure was an old fashioned tin roof directly above us. Acoustically challenged seats, to put it lightly.

--It was hot as balls. It was probably about 90% humidity outside, and 100% hippy sweat humidity inside. Rarely have I perspired that much while sitting still. At least I didn't have to worry about peeing during the show since I was becoming massively dehydrated as it was.

--The typical Boston college student meatheads were out in full force. One dude a bit behind us screamed out "Kingdom of the Animals!" after nearly every song. Then there was the douche up in front of us screaming "Free Bird!" after every other song. Seriously, who still does that? The Free Bird thing was never that funny to begin with, but it jumped the shark like 8 years ago. Mr. Free Bird was almost always followed by a loud "F&%$ you!!" by a guy over to our right. These three guys went through the "Kingdom of the Animals"-->"Free Bird!"-->"F&%$ you!!" routine at least three times over the first half hour of the show. Normally I would put my annoyance down to just being old, but no, I'm pretty sure everyone else was pretty much fed up with them after round three of these shenanigans.

--After the regular set, I hear the guy sitting directly behind me say, "I'm not sure I like the direction he's going in. It's kind of like Dylan going electric, ya know?" Guess what, dude? Your hipster license has just been revoked. If you're going to make pretentious comments, at least find a more apt (and less dated) comparison than "Dylan going electric."

--I can't even remember which song Sam Beam played for his encore (though it was definitely one of his older ones), but I do remember that he forgot the words TWICE. Pretty craptastic way to end a show.

So yeah, not the best show ever. I think there was a lot of potential, though. There were eight people up on the stage--three of whom were percussionists, including the regular drummer. It's definitely a much fuller sound now. That said, my favorite songs were still the ones with just Sam Beam and his guitar, accompanied only by his sister on violin and backup vox. I think I can get used to the new stuff though--this new album could be my Iron & Wine for more upbeat occasions; I'll save his older albums for melancholy days.

For anyone out there completely unfamiliar with Iron & Wine, please don't let this post discourage you from checking out his music. "Our Endless Numbered Days" and "The Creek Drank the Cradle" are two of the most beautiful albums I've encountered over the past five years. Please check him out, and consider this post a bad concert review, not a bad artist review.