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Catherine Irwin and Janet Bean |
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Wow; for moody, atmospheric, emotionally packed songs with lots of country twang, you will have a hard time beating Freakwater, which strongly impressed me during their show at Mohawk Place, the first time I’ve caught the band live but doubtfully the last time. And when you add the vocals of Catherine Irwin and Janet Bean, you get into the territory of hushed audiences and breath being taken away.
Despite having heard Freakwater recordings, I wasn’t prepared for just how good and powerful their vocals would come across live; Irwin has the more middle range, plain speak to breakdown-coming voice to my ears, with Bean having a gorgeous, often soprano, voice that while sometimes sounding smaller as well as high-pitched, did nothing to hide the pain, sorrow and occasional joy she felt during the songs. Often singing in harmony with each other, sometimes almost singing separate but equal leads, frequently the only sounds you heard during the songs besides the band were a small group of really stupid young adults standing just behind us on a ledge who thought that their attempts at heckling and mocking the band in general (barking and woofing sounds, just amazingly novel) were amusing.
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Freakwater opened with an old, slower song, “Good for Nothing,” with Irwin’s and Bean’s vocals joined by some fine pedal steel guitar from Jon Spiegel as they dealt with holding up their part of relationships while their partners haven’t; “Buckets of Oil,” from Freakwater’s new CD, “Thinking of You,” seems to suggest that there is a lot of stuff they want to and need to forget. After the song, Irwin started one of her stories Bean guaranteed she would tell many of (in a recent interview) with, “I was sleeping in the car as we drove here, curled up on my liver.” The audience joined the band in laughing and nodding with recognition at this reference (a review of Freakwater’s last Buffalo show noted the alcohol consumption was the most the reviewer remembered since Joe Walsh), with Bean all but doubling up before chuckling, “That’s disgusting.” “Smoking Daddy,” slow, moody and really good, featured drummer Ben Massarella (Califone) playing organ.
Irwin then went off on a tangent that left most of the crowd and some band members shaking their heads and laughing as she noted that Kentucky, where she comes from, and Buffalo, toil under the common weight of being known for types of chicken, Kentucky for KFC and Buffalo for chicken wings: “I look out into the audience and all I see are a big group of wings.” Bean look half-amazed at Irwin and laughed/snorted, “What?” This was followed by two or three more musically upbeat songs, with Bean’s voice standing out, especially sounding like Emmylou Harris on a song whose title I missed but featured crashing drums, instrumental crescendos and some good steel guitar. “Cathy Ann,” another song off “Thinking of You” about the death of one of Woodie Guthrie’s daughters who apparently couldn’t catch a break, again featured standout vocals, and Freakwater ended its set with a fine version of “Hi Ho, Silver,” also off the new CD.
The band returned for an encore following loud applause from an audience that included a large contingent of out-of-town females who seemed to travel as a group, cheered loud and requested several older songs, including the third and last song of the encore, “My Old Drunk Friend,” which left the crowd cheering as the lights came up to end the show.
Opening the show was Buffalo’s Flatbed, which was performing minus drummer Ted Chubbuck due to a prior musical commitment but joined by John Brady (the Steam Donkeys drummer, not the blues guitarist) on mandolin and lap steel guitar. The band sounded interesting at times, a bit too loose and sloppy at others but was kept together through the bass playing of Michael Tinsmon, who was celebrating his recent martial arts black belt, and guitarist Daniel Smith, and any band featuring Joelle Labert’s fine singing has something going for it. The band’s blend of country rock, country, southern rock and occasional jam rock was lowered a bit while some jazzy and poppy sounds were added. |
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