SHOW REVIEW: The Magnetic Fields
LOCATION: Old Town School Of Folk, Chicago, IL
3/16/08

2008’s "Distortion," a definite departure in style for The Magnetic Fields, finds the band supplementing their eclectic, folksy pop with wave upon wave of writhing guitar noise, a conscious effort on singer-songwriter Stephen Merritt’s part to reproduce the sound of The Jesus and Mary Chain’s seminal debut "Psychocandy." You wouldn’t know that from the stripped down set the band presented at Chicago’s Old Town School of Folk Music last Sunday. Bereft of all the feedback and noise, squalling ear-shredders like "California Girls" and "Drive on, Driver" sounded perfectly at home alongside old standards "The Book of Love" and "Take Ecstasy with Me."

The band looked physically drained for their ten o’clock performance, their sixth and final show at that venue in just three days. Nonetheless, Merritt and co. were in fine form, waltzing through nearly two hours of delicious pop gems. Their set list spanned the group’s illustrious seventeen-year career and even stretched to include Merritt’s solo work and side-projects The 6ths, The Gothic Archies, and Future Bible Heroes. Merritt, with his electric Ukulele, was joined onstage by Claudia Gonson on piano, as well as John Woo on acoustic and slide guitar, Sam Davol on Cello, and Shirley Simms, whom many will remember from her vocal contributions to the band’s 1999 magnum opus "69 Love Songs."

The venue was spectacular: small and intimate, and with fabulous acoustics. I’ve never heard a band sound better live. Merritt’s low, languid voice was every bit as full and clear live as it is on any of the group’s recordings. The only time the band’s exhaustion became apparent was in those moments of fumbling between songs to figure out what was next on the set list, but even this the band managed to turn into a source of amusement for the audience. One particularly confusing break left them searching through their binders for almost a minute to get on the same page. "Our next song is called ‘Zorro Boy.’ It’s about having sex with a Mexican superhero. It’s one of my more autobiographical songs," Merritt drawled before strumming the opening chords to "Zombie Boy." The stage-banter as a whole was very easy and free, Merritt’s surly, laconic, slightly caustic personality was balanced well against the more effervescent and loquacious Gonson, who did most of the talking for the band.

The lack of a drummer definitely led to a much more demure performance than I was expecting. This was compounded by the absence of some of the electronic flourishes that The Magnetic Fields have used to embellish their songs over the years. As a result, more upbeat, dancier tunes like "The Luckiest Guy on the Lower East Side," "Kiss Me Like You Mean It," and "You, Me, and the Moon," were sorely missing in favor of some slower and more acoustic-friendly numbers. They still managed to soar on a few songs, the absolute highlight for me being "69 Love Songs’" show-stopping duet "Yeah! Oh Yeah!," a tongue-in-cheek dialogue between a wealthy dowager wife and her murderous husband. The song found Gonson climbing unsteadily too her feet upon her piano bench to plead with Merritt’s implacable dramatis personae. Her footing may have been wobbly, but her voice didn’t give an inch. A little more of that kind of energy would have been a tremendous benefit to a sonically luscious, if somewhat staid performance.