I went to see Iron & Wine at 4
th & B in San Diego on Tuesday evening.
It was my first time at 4
th & B. It reminded me a bit of the of the Mean Fiddler in London 'cause both have standing balconies, though 4
th and B is a fair bit bigger. There were rows and rows of seats laid out in front of the stage, I guess cause Iron & Wine's mellow sounds don't require space for moshing. The seats and the high stage meant that I had a decent view for once.
The support act were
Califone, who had two percussionists and a drum machine too sometimes. The two other band members played a variety of instruments swapping between guitar, banjo, violin, and keyboards. They had a tendency to fiddle with their guitar pedals a bit too much, and didn't start and finish their songs cleanly. The banjo tunes were the best and had a good groove. Some of
Califone returned to the stage later in the Iron & Wine band.
Iron & Wine were very good. Their leader, Sam Beam, looks a bit like Billy Connolly of welly boot song vintage. In general I preferred their simpler songs that didn't involve the whole band. And in particular I thought the marimba never fit that well into the sound, and was too random and harsh in tone. But at times the soft vocal harmonies were stunningly beautiful. In all they played for about an hour and a half so even though there wasn't much traffic on the way, it was nearly 1am by the time I got home.
In the local mall there is a calendar stall that has calenders for four presidential candidates: Hillary, Guiliani, McCain and Obama. I guess this is bad news for the rival candidates who have been snubbed by the stall, like Edwards, Romney and Huckabee (tho' the latter was probably still a no-hoper at the time the calanders were printed). However, it's not all good news for the four chosen candidates because the calendars are all already marked down at 50% off.
