We’ve Got a City to Love (Chris Thile, Living Room)

“I am so afraid of you.”

Mandolinist Chris Thile, addressing another standing-room crowd at the Living Room.  New Yorkers, he explains, intimidate him; though he moved to the city last September, most of the time since has been spent on the road.  You all do so much, and do it so well, he says.  Today each one of you wrote a novel.  Or finished a symphony.  While all he did was run by the East River, watch the fire, listen to a street musician.  It gets to the point where you’re too embarrassed to come out of the apartment unless you’ve accomplished something.

It’s an odd statement coming from someone who seems to have accomplished so much.  The twenty-five-year-old is already a renowned musician who capably cross-pollinates bluegrass and pop, comfortably covers Bach and Britney.  Thile’s got four solo records, another two with Mike Marshall, three more with his Day Job, Nickel Creek.  He’s got a Grammy.  In a short while, he’ll be performing an entire Sonata from memory.

“I should just play in the park.”

Unlike his sets here in November and December, Thile is alone.  Last time, most of his stage banter concerned his new band’s lack of a name (someone even threw up a Tension’s Mountain Boys page on myspace); now there’s no band.  The suite the quintet had been working on has been cut down to two songs; they’ve been recorded and will appear on Thile’s next solo release (tentatively due in September).  Perhaps there’s something to all this modesty.

Ups and downs.  Even with the lowered expectations, I can’t help but be disappointed.  Some of the people in the room – a lot of them, actually – are aficionados chasing a virtuoso; it’s easier for them to see Thile raise the bar when he’s floating on his own.  But what made my jaw drop – again and again and again – during last autumn’s shows was the collaborative enthusiasm between a group of highly talented musicians.  I’m in it for gutwork, not fretwork.

Things start off politely, a tune from a Celtic region of Spain, then a regular-as-bran Gillian Welch song.  Less is less.  There’s less to hear, and less to watch.  Thile’s face, when playing well with others, was reactionary and joyous; now, during the instrumental stretches, his eyes roll up, his lip sneers and he looks like he’s swallowing his tongue.  He doesn’t get pleased with himself.  A flurry of notes at the end of his own “Eureka!” brings some much needed energy, and there are some appropriate, explosive asides during a White Stripes cover.

It’s not cool, he says – here in New York – to like The Strokes, anymore.  But:  “I love them like a little girl.  I am very nearly gay for all the Strokes.  Julian, you would so like me if you knew me.  We’d hang out all the time, play baseball...”

See, now he’s excited.  He loves The Strokes, and even though his “Juicebox” cover is – well, he’s playing a bass-driven song on a mandolin, and feigning laryngitis to sound like Casablancas – the technique doesn't matter, because the approach is effusive.

And if you think Chris Thile is nuts about The Strokes, you should see how gaga he gets over Johann Sebastian Bach.

No, seriously, you should.  If he slips up you’ll never know it, not unless you bring in the sheet music and follow along (he invites us to do just that – next week, he’s playing the D minor); though exactitude ain’t my thing, what matters is that Thile ably communicates the fun he’s having ex’ing it out.  When he starts taking requests during the encore and someone yells out “More Bach!” he’s like a kid at Christmas.  A kid at Christmas with a pony.  With a pony on a boat.  He quickly whips out – and whips through – a Partita (this one(sample mp3, buy), perhaps), then yodels his way through some Jimmie Rogers.

There are times Thile is simply frustrating – and, I think, frustrated.  He’s often drawn to spare, haunted stuff, which would be great if he had a slightly-out-of-tune geetar and a terminal case of whiskey throat.  But here’s a man with a  boyish voice and elven features who plays the mandolin, ferchrissakes, and that – don’t argue – is an instrument with a limited emotional range.  The sound is too bright to dip anywhere south of Modestly Bummed Out.  This is why, when he sings back-to-back break-up songs, the maudlin “You’re an Angel and I’m Gonna Cry” falls flat while the comic “If You’re Gonna Leave Me” (“If you’re gonna leave me, set me up with one of your friends”) hits all the right notes.

Thile is so affable and eager – and talented – that if anyone can squeeze misery out of those happy little strings, it’ll be him.  What seems like modesty is really creative restlessness:  He’s not where he wants to be, yet, and that’s a good thing.  Here’s hoping he stays a little scared and never gets to be one of those terminally self-satisfied New Yorkers.  “I’ll be more relaxed next time,” he promises.  “If your friends ask you how it was, tell them... ‘It was okay. 

“‘But it’s going to be great.’”

*

Set list:

Theme from Galicia (trad.?)

Wayside/Back in Time (Gillian Welch/David Rawlings)

This is All Real (from Deceiver)

Eureka! (from Not All Who Wander Are Lost)

Dead Leaves and the Dirty Ground (White Stripes, on forthcoming)

Stay Away (new)

Juicebox (Strokes)

Sonata in A Minor (J.S. Bach)

You’re an Angel and I’m Gonna Cry (new)

If You’re Gonna Leave Me (new?)

Encore:

More Bach (D minor Gigue from Solo Violin Partita #2?)

On Ice (from Deceiver)

Breakman’s Blues (Jimmie Rodgers)

*

During that last song, Thile realized a couple strings had fallen out of tune and worked the re-tuning into the lines he was playing.

*

Chris Thile will be performing solo shows at 10pm in the same venue each of the next two Tuesdays, 5/9 and 5/16; there’s an additional 11pm show with  Michael Daves the 16th.  Tickets are available here.

Thile’s myspace page is barren; there are some songs streaming on Nickel Creek’s.  But here are a couple selections for sampling.  The first is from the new CD Thile/Mike Marshall CD, Live: Duets; the second is from the last Nickel Creek CD, Why Should the Fire Die?, and it’s simple, and sad, and perfect.

• Chris Thile & Mike Marshall – I’d Go Back if I Could (mp3) (buy)


• Nickel Creek – Jealous of the Moon (mp3) (buy)

As Brooklyn Vegan pointed out, on both the 9th and 16th Ane Brun (whom I saw post-SXSW) will be playing the set right before Thile’s.  She’s well worth catching... if that’s actually possible:  Because Brun’s set is free and Thile’s is not, the Living Room clears out their performance area between sets, and the line forms early to get seating for the later set; if you have a ticket, you’ll get in, but you might not get a seat.

Brun’s latest CD, A Temporary Dive, gets a U.S. release next week; you can pre-order that here.  The following song is from an older record, the Import-only Spending Time with Morgan, and it’s the sort of thing you could keep playing on repeat for weeks on end.

• Ane Brun – Humming One of Your Songs (mp3) (buy)

Here's her myspace; her site also has an Audio Jukebox.