(photos by Keith Klenowski)

Damien Jurado was in town earlier this week and ENS live reviewer Ben Lehman checked out the show. See his review and Keith’s photos below.

Other than Midpoint Music Fest’s Indie Summer music series, as well as a handful of good shows sporadically blowing through the Southgate House, it has been a relatively slow summer for concertgoers around Cincinnati. Larger cities and bands alike are still trying to recover in time for the last remaining summer music festivals, so it’s no surprise and no one’s fault that national tours are short, likely skipping over our beloved Queen City.

Speaking for myself, this disappointing fact was redeemed the moment I realized the opportunity to see one of my absolute favorite songwriters, Damien Jurado, twice in one day. The first of these performances took place Tuesday afternoon at Northside’s Shake-It records, for a very attentive and appreciative crowd of thirty or forty- a decent size for an afternoon in-store. Surprisingly, Jurado played a lengthy set of seven or eight songs, including personal favorites “Denton, TX”, “Ohio”, “Letters & Drawings”, and a potential future B-side. The latter, a magnificent and emotionally charged ballad, was recently dismissed from the line-up for his forthcoming album. The rest was made up of a nice mixture of notable tracks from his past nine full-lengths, featuring only “Coats of Ice” from one of 2008’s best, Caught In The Trees [Secretly Canadian]. The imposingly thick-built singer spoke only brief statements between a couple of songs, including a humorous disclaimer that, “[he] really isn’t as sad as the songs suggest.” Following the Shake-It performance, I got a chance to approach Jurado and take participation in a friendly chat about Mark Kozelek/ Red House Painters, the perils of air-fare, and the oddity of this current tour with Psalters and the Weiss Brothers (MewithoutYou).

A bit later in the evening, Jurado took to the Mad Hatter stage across the river in Covington KY, following the extremely energetic gospel, freak-folk denizens Psalters. Their set boasted guest percussion/vox from MewithoutYou frontman Aaron Weiss and a few lucky spectators, including local Pomegranate Isaac Karns. I’m sure that anyone who arrived in time for these openers left a fan of Psalters (or at least their live show). Musically, imagine Dr. Dog meets Avett Brothers meets Danielson.

I expected to see the audience shift tides as Damien Jurado took the stage alone, with a new wave of fans making way to the front, allowing the Psalters/MwY kids retreating backwards. However, the crowd remained stationary (for the most part) and oddly attentive, starting with the opening strums of “Lose My Head” from I Break Chairs. Five or six songs in, Jurado re-focused any wandering minds, startling his previously low-key set by repeatedly shouting, “You pull back your guns, I’ll call off the dogs!” At that point, his typical ‘she walked away, but I’ll be alright’-type message moved fast-forward, ending with “Look me in the eye! I want to watch you die… boy.” The change was captivating and obvious, and luckily, I no longer had to worry about the two girls behind me discussing their halter-tops, or whatever. With only a few left in his 40 min. performance, all ears were turned, as it grew quite clear that Damien Jurado is far removed from the typical broken-hearted, acoustic-guy-with-a-Black Flag-tattoo, or some other Jason Molina impersonator.

Afterwards, the Weiss Brothers and their makeshift band, containing a few Psalters and others, treated anxious MewithoutYou fans to an excellent and convincing set. They covered… themselves/ their other band and played some original music. Meanwhile, Damien Jurado could be found outside walking down Madison Ave. smoking a cigarette, hopefully forming what will become another one of his patented landmark narratives about Covington’s ever-reputable Lee’s Chicken.