Last Tuesday, April 19, I attended a Crooked Fingers concert at Berbati's Pan in Portland, Oregon. The band has been touring in support of their latest album, Dignity and Shame, and I caught them on the final few shows of their tour. Having really enjoyed their newest album, though not finding it perfect, I was eager to see them live and they proved to be no disappointment.
The opening bands, Reclinerland and Dolorean, both put on good shows. They served as great warmups for the main act, with their sound complimenting Crooked Fingers very well. Being unfamiliar with both bands prior to the evening, I was pleased to find their music enjoyable and appealing. However, once Crooked Fingers came on, it was clear they were the main show.
Eric Bachmann, the lead singer, and the band as a whole is well-suited to performing live. They arrived with energy and enthusiasm, launching into their set with an admirable abandon. Crooked Fingers generally has a great sound, with a mixture of subdued and contemplative songs and more upbeat, gravel-voiced tracks that indulge in a greater amount of energy. Both kinds of music translated very well into their live performance, with them becoming animated and energenic during the more upbeat songs and settling into a wonderfully atmospheric and moody tone during the slower songs.
The guitar work was magnificent throughout the show, as were the drums. The interspersed trumpet was also very nice and effective, lending a great mood to many of the songs from Dignity and Shame, an album that used horns to great effect. Meanwhile, Barbara Trentalange did a magnificent job providing back up vocals and taking the lead during a few Dignity and Shame tracks, as well as kicking in with some work on the flute during certain songs.
Trentalange was one of the evening's pleasant surprises. In my review of the Dignity and Shame, I took some issue with the lyrical work of Lara Meyerattken, who shows up throughout the album. While there is certainly nothing technically deficient about her work on the album, her voice seemed ill-suited at times to the overall Crooked Fingers sound. For the live shows, it seems, the band is touring with Trentalange, whose voice came across as much more complimentary for the songs and for Bachmann in particularly. She has a slightly lower-pitched, more smoky and sultry voice that wove in and out throughout the songs, proving to be a very compatible and complimentary presence that added nice depth to the music. She also added her vocal talents to a few older Crooked Fingers songs and that worked out nicely, as well.
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