Photo Credit: Daniel Boud, Sydney Opera House (Used with Permission)
Formerly known as Smog, and the brief touring and life companion of the incomparable Joanna Newsom, Bill Callahan is sitting on an impressive catalogue of music that spans some 25 years and 14 albums. This week, he’s touring Australia for the first time in some six years, off the belated back of his last record Dream River (not counting the “dub” version released a year later) and is in Sydney to play two shows as part of the popular Vivid Festival.
Set against the backdrop of the artwork of Paul Ryan, and accompanied by a three piece band, Bill embarked on an album two and a half hour journey through his catalogue, leaning mostly towards his latest record Dream River, and sitting almost entirely on the music he’s released under his own name since 2007. The incredible “Dress Sexy at My Funeral” from his Smog days being the only exception.
Ryan’s artwork sets a familiar scene throughout the show: trees, mountains, birds and water, working as a constant against the similarly focused lyrics of Dream River. Just a few less graphical references to drinking along the way. But it wasn’t from this record – generally fairly mundane in nature (albeit beautiful) – that we found the best moments from the set.
Live highlights from the night included “Eid Ma Clack Shaw” (“Love is the King of the Beasts”, he finely puts) off of 2009’s Sometimes I Wish We Were an Eagle, alongside the epic “One Fine Morning” off his 2011 record Apocalypse, a stunning over of Grateful Dead’s “Easy Wind” and of course the lyrically splendid (see: black humour) “Dress Sexy at My Funeral”, which is often cited as one of his best works (and this writer would have to agree).
Callahan’s live delivery is poetic or even prose like, rather than musical. His songs serving as stories, taking you through his view of the American wilderness, set against images designed to relay a version of Ryan’s Australia – Rainbow lorikeets and kookaburras featuring in some beautiful (albeit repetitive) paintings (some in still, others in video form). The music itself hypnotic, with Callahan giving his songs moments of live exploration; his electric guitarist in particular shining some stunning moments within their jams.
Without a lot of his better known and more upbeat material, it was a hard set to be engaged in, and Callahan himself did little to work with the crowd for the most part (though shined with humour and gravitas when he did). But it was to be expected from one of his sets. The music was beautiful, the live competitions stunning and it featured music that stuck with you long after you left the venue. But if we’re talking about the really “stand out” moments, there were only the few that I mentioned. The rest sat simmering in the wind, by the rivers he sung about, without ever quite taking hold of you. But maybe that’s exactly as it should have been and exactly as he wanted it to be.
Setlist:
The Sing
Javelin Unlanding
Spring
Universal Applicant
Small Plane
Eid Ma Clack Shaw
Jim Cain
One Fine Morning
Too Many Birds
America!
Easy Wind (Grateful Dead cover)
Ride My Arrow
Dress Sexy at My Funeral (Smog)
Drover
Say Valley Maker
Encore:
Riding for the Feeling
Sycamore
Winter Road
Bill Callahan plays one more show at the Joan Sutherland Theatre tonight for Vivid Festival
