M Ward is a name consistently popping up on the live music listings over the past few years but I never managed to check out. Recently, I got hold of his latest Pitchfork approved album, Post-War, which quickly turned me to a fan and intrigued to see how his live performance would hold up. It also made me a little disappointed that I had passed on all those earlier gig opportunities.

By the time we arrived at the Metro Theatre, Wons Phreely was already on stage introducing Dumbass to a modest sized crowd, scattered and seated throughout the venue. With the simplicities of Wons, a guitar, occasional harmonica and violin back up, he provided a nice chilled set to get the night underway. After Wons’ work, the crowd then built for Holly Throsby and Co.

Personally, I am yet to fully jump aboard the Holly train. However, my accomplice for the evening was a firm ticket holder for the Throsby express. Apparent by the crowd size and support given, she definitely does have that certain something that draws the crowds in.

Opening her set with Some Nights Are Long, Throsby and the band played over the fairly talkative crowd. The crowd noise seemed to come in an out at stages, Throsby’s telling of a joke lost the crowd, while talking about tan lines was a definite winner. It was at Holly’s ponderings of switching songs in the set to better fit the “not so quiet night” when the crowd instantly settled and provided their undivided attention. At this point, Holly went back to plan A and played a very well received We’re Good People But Why Don’t We Show It?

The multi-tasking skills of drummer, Bree van Reyk, were also worthy of a mention. During Things Between People, Bree entertained all by playing both drums and a piano accordion at the same time. I would have to say it’s the first time I’ve seen that at a show.

The show travelled fairly smoothly until the bridge on the cello broke during The Shoulders and Bends, bringing an abrupt end to the cello section for the evening. Due to this, Holly considered making the closer, Making a Fire, a solo effort but then opted for drumming support instead. Holly Throsby’s set was very well received and put the sometimes noisy crowd in the right mood for M Ward and his band to take over.

After soundcheck, the band came on and got things rolling with an opening jam to prepare for an M Ward walk on entrance. I was surprised to see this persona for his live performance as I imagined him to be a fairly fragile player who would simply sit at the front of the stage with guitar in hand. Not that I’m complaining.

So M Ward came on stage and brandished his husky vocals for Four Hours in Washington. Keeping the banter to a minimum, the gravelly voiced M Ward kept the songs rolling one after the other and it wasn’t long before realizing how talented a guitarist, singer and songwriter M Ward is. He was very much living up to the talent displayed in his latest album. Thank god I finally checked out this name that had evaded me so many times before.

At times, however, I felt the show may have lacked a little variety as some parts seemed to linger and were perhaps a little too country. Although this may have been attributed to the sound, which I don’t feel was mixed as well as it could have been. The guitar effects sometimes seemed a little too strong, at some points outweighing the vocals. I felt this very much during Post-War, a beautiful song, partly for its simplicity and laid back feel on the album. This time, however, I felt the backing guitar had been pushed up the front and took away from the song. Also, the second drummer was a little superfluous as they seemed to be playing the same rhythms a majority of the time. Occasionally they took separate paths but for the most of it the result was just a louder drum-kit.

Even with this in mind M Ward put on an impressive show and held the crowd throughout the set, especially showing strong support for the highlight tunes: Poison Cup, Chinese Translation, Vincent O’brien and the first encore opener, Helicopter. Coming out for a second encore and closing the night with Sad, Sad Song the crowd sang along and were left hoping for a possible third encore. However, it was not to be. Probably better to be left wanting more.

Overall, this was a very solid set by M Ward and left me planning to further seek out his back catalogue. I’ll certainly be keeping an eye out for his name to pop up in the future gig listings. However, I’m sure, like those little Lego pieces as a child, the more you want them the less they’ll seem to show.