As anyone who has heard the angelic voice of Laura Gibson live can attest to, she is one damn fine singer. For her latest project, she’s teamed up with a fellow Oregonian and popular multi-instrumentalist Ethan Rose. Like two kids in the candy shop, both Gibson and Rose have their fingers all over oddball instruments for the making of their recently released LP entitled Bridge Carols, so getting a chance to see how this duo was going to manage piecing together all the parts live was the main reason I headed out to their free in-store show at Music Millennium (it also didn’t hurt that the place is within walking distance of my house).
When I arrived at the shop, there was already about twenty-five people aligned on the back wall while they were doing last-minute sound checks. With ages ranging from high school to well into retirement years, the diversity of the crowd is a testament on how far reaching both Gibson and Rose’s music is. Perched up on the second floor where all the vinyl is located and sandwiched between the latest Hotrats and Matt & Kim releases, the pair was a bit disjointed from the audience. Since the musical soundscape they create is almost something tangible, it felt a bit awkward seeing them perform so far away. It didn’t help either that the first two tracks were marred by some technical difficulties (either an old cable or bad connect was to blame for the periodic knife-like cuts of sound), however, midway through they started to fall into a groove, especially with the track “Leaving, Believing”.
Being their first US show together after a brief stint abroad in Japan last autumn, there’s no doubt that some kinks need to be ironed out. Also, the venue itself, with it’s cash register clicks and anti-theft alarm sirens, wasn’t very conducive to a picture perfect performance (I for one felt guilty even taking pictures because I didn’t want my shutter sounds to disturb the relative quietness). However, during the times when everything fell into the place — the music, the sound system, the background noise level — it wasn’t anything short of mesmerizing.
If Gibson’s solo work is something akin to a spiritual awakening, then the collaboration with Rose must be the soundtrack God plays after you’ve successfully crossed over. Parked behind the microKorg most of the night playing simple sustained synth chords, Gibson was able to concentrate on nailing her vocals — no easy feat considering how most had delay and echo effects to deal with. Like a mad scientist, Rose’s chief responsibly was tinkering with different sounds and instruments trying to recreate the layers of each track. Not to say that Gibson was left completely out of the equation (she did pick up the melodica and tambourine several times), but it was mostly her partner frantically swapping instrument-after-instrument to get just the right backing sounds for her gorgeous vocals.
If anything, this six song, thirty minute set was a nice appetizer to their upcoming performance on Friday at the Holocene (who also played the part of record label for this LP). To get you more excited for the show, you’re able to stream the whole album from their website as well as downloading the stellar track “Younger” from them at the cost of an e-mail:
