When we shared the Moo, You Bloody Choir b-side “The Brothel Creeper” a couple of weeks ago, commenter Aussie Chris offered, “For those in North America – try and be patient with these guys – no instant rewards. The Augies are a fine red wine.” Sound advice, and true too for the Saul Bellows-indebted tunesmiths’ live show; Monday night’s Merc set was a march-don’t-run rev-up to “Bottle Baby,” with which the show broke finally into a goose-pimply stunner. “The Cold Acre”‘s noir shuffle set the scene fittingly, but with “Bottle” (on the heels of a deafening and too-trebly “Strange Bird”), Glenn went mostly solo and soul-baring: acoustic, capo, and shiver-me-timbers tenor. Follow that with the soaring gospel-tinged crowd-fave “One Crowded Hour,” and it wasn’t tough to hear why we heard “blown away” on the lips of most making their way out of Merc that night.
So yeah, patience is prereq, but the Augies’ literate pop is sweet reward. For the uninitiated, here’s a MooTube platter: “Bottle Baby,” “One Crowded Hour,” and “The Cold Acre.” Try ‘em all. Setlist and a few more pics after the jump.
SETLIST
01 “The Cold Acre”
02 “Just Passing Through”
03 “Mother Greer”
04 “The Baron Of Sentiment”
05 “Brundisium”
06 “Strange Bird”
07 “Bottle Baby
08 “One Crowded Hour”
09 “This Train Will Be Taking No Passengers”
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Hell of a show.
Yeah, they were great and they were all really nice to talk to after the show even with the jetlag
i’m not gonna lie- the only reason i looked at this post is because of the fun yellow guitar.
i was uninitiated- listened- and love. specially ‘the cold acre’- goosebumps with these lyrics and voice: My heart is a cold acre, in my chest is a cold acre,
I don’t grow any good anymore though I’ve seeded my soul with
all kinds of love, that it aches so…
Can anyone elaborate as to what “Strange Bird” was (that’s not a song title)? Was it Song in the Key of Chance?
“Strange Bird” is actually “The Keepa”