Passenger @ Mojo’s Bar05/04/2010

Thu 8th Apr, 2010 in Gig Reviews

For many people all that is needed to like a song is an awesome guitar riff or a catchy hook, and nothing much else. Pop music in general plays upon this fact, taking advantage of people’s short attention spans to roll out song after song of complete rubbish. Those of us who actually like music want more than this, we recognise how composition and melody can be dwarfed by the most important part of a song; emotion. With the introduction of auto-tune and club-focused beats, any form of emotion has been beaten out of popular music, however we all hold certain songs close to our heart that have an powerful emotional resonance with us some examples might be This Woman’s Work by Kate Bush, Skinny Love by Bon Iver and Names by Cat Power. Raw emotion appeals to us on a different level; cultural background doesn’t matter when you witness someone expressing their emotions in such an intense way. This was how it was to watch Mike Rosenberg (a.k.a. Passenger) perform his collection of songs, which was easily one of the best musical displays I have ever witnessed.

Opening at 2pm, North Street Music presented an enjoyable afternoon of talented singer-songwriters, culminating with the incredible Mike Rosenberg (whose brilliance will be discussed at length a bit later). First on stage was the chirpy Minky G of Minky G & the Effects. Her opening track Radio Song introduced her upbeat style, which complimented her nervous energy beautifully. Adding slight percussion with a foot tapper, Minky tended to favour strummed acoustic guitar. I Got You featured clever use of jazz chords, which then lead in to some good old-fashioned scat.

Dance with Andrea saw a return to a more conventional chord usage. It tells story of a guy friend who likes one of her girl friends, its sweetness made it one of the more lyrically interesting songs of the set. Moment showed some intelligent use of picked chords and final song Trouble was based around the repetition of the word trouble (probably why she named it Trouble), and featured a return to the more upbeat strummed chords seen early in the set.

Helen Shanahan looked noticeably nervous before her performance. Fortunately, she was able to convert her nerves into a fast-paced and very intense twenty minute set. Opening her first song Mirror with an impressive acoustic section with a hint of the oriental scale to it, this progressed into a song carried by tempo and vocal strength. Just Don’t Go was more restrained than previous songs, and focused a greater attention to a verse-chorus style composition. Cover is Blown continued the laid-back approached established on Just Don’t Go, however the intensity was turned back up to 11 by Girl in Love, which featured nice usage of falsetto in the chorus. Final song He Says created an interesting role reversal within the lyrics, from Shanahan bowing to ‘He’ to ‘He’ himself bowing to Shanahan, all in the name of love.

Next up was multi-instrumentalist Julius Lutero, who undoubtedly played the most laid back and thoroughly interesting set of the night. Making extensive use of a loop pedal, Lutero expertly wove his songs between a full band and a stripped back acoustic sound. First song Next Breath sounded like a wholly unlikely collaboration between Santana and Jack Johnson, and was centred around a funky bass riff. Taking the most advantage of his loop pedal in this song, Lutero allowed the song to rise and fall by interweaving different loops and multi-tracking his vocals.

Come Fly With Me was compositionally well-structured, and its charms were more understated than Next Breath. New Day returned to extensive looping, and featured an acoustic wah solo. Within Lutero’s songs it seemed that the lyrics were secondary to the music which was allowed to build and fall around the vocals.

From one distinctive performer to another, Bianca Jade was the last locally based artist to perform before Mike Rosenberg. Presenting her own brand of American Country music, Jade matched Lutero’s laid-back performance with a super-confident one of her own. East 3rd Street chronicled her residence in New York in a building run by the Hells Angels Motorcycle Club, and featured a chorus with “1,2,3,4,5” in it, reminding us modern indie-kids that Feist is not the only one who can count. Pour was more minimalistic, and showed of Jade’s fantastic vocals and impressive vibrato. The echo on Jade’s vocals was most noticeable during What You Can Say, which faded away subtly as she broke it down to bring her set to a satisfying close.

To say Mike Rosenberg was fucking incredible would be an understatement.

Opening with The Last Unicorn, Rosenberg was deftly and reserved. Pulling his acoustic and vocals throughout different levels of intensity and volume simultaneously, Rosenberg had that rare transfixing quality that only intensified with second track Caravan, which saw him, dive far greater into the emotional aspect of the song.

Acknowledging the heartbreaking quality of his songs “I don’t get asked to play many weddings”, Rosenberg managed to keep the gig extraordinarily light-hearted by playing his songs in a very serious manner, while not taking them seriously in-between (I know that sounds weird, but somehow he did it). Rosenberg then went on to play joke song The Rain, which chronicled different sayings about the rain (It’s Raining Men, Raining Cats and Dogs, Chucking Buckets, Pissing It Down) and why it would be disastrous if any of these came true. It was quite truly hilarious, and would slay any comedy audience.

Underwater Bride featured a beautiful acoustic part and Rosenberg descended even deeper into the song’s emotions, in which he seemed uncontrollably lost. Table for One was the first track to be played off debut album Wicked Man’s Rest, and was also the first song to be played unplugged by Rosenberg. Telling the story of a middle-aged man, once again Rosenberg poured an incredible amount of emotion and beauty into the performance.

Mike Rosenberg creates humour in his own misfortune, which was exemplified in sixth song played Anti-Love Song Parts One and Two. Chronicling the story of his girlfriend going to Barcelona, meeting someone else, breaking up with him, then Mike getting a plane down to Barcelona to only be knocked back once again, Anti-Love Song was a charmingly witty and generally funny take on what must have been a painful time. Brick Walls was the first new song to be played, and was probably the most intense song of the night. Building towards a passionate climax, Brick Walls in particular showed how much the songs really do mean to him.

I See Love was unplugged; Rosenberg created the percussion by stamping his foot extremely hard on the stage throughout, which only helped to increase the intensity. A masterfully stripped down version of Things You’ve Never Done, which was among a disappointingly small number of songs played from his brilliant first album Wicked Man’s Rest. The set ended with another unplugged song, but this time he came off stage to sing Crows of Snow to us creating an incredible interconnectedness between performer and audience that made it clear that this guy was performing these amazing songs just for us.

After a such an incredible performance, it was unlikely the crowd would let him get away without an encore. Dear Emma was a sweet little acoustic number, with picking guitar that showcased Mike’s extraordinary rhyming techniques and lyrical prowess. Final song Cheeky Monkey paved the final brick between Rosenberg and his audience, as he encouraged us to sing along. With Twelve relatively sad songs preceding it, Cheeky Monkey seemed the perfect way to close an amazing set, which no one who attended will forget in a hurry.