When: Monday, January 14, 2008
Where: World Cafe Life, Phila. PA
Philadelphia’s World Cafe Live, home to WXPN, is the perfect place for an artist like Mirah to play. A majority of the lighting comes from white strings of lights around the bar and railings and from the soft glow of candles on each table. The crowd was composed of hipsters and indie rockers drinking a variety of teas or beers (from Pabst to Chimay) and indulging on delicious food ranging from eggplant fries (they were delish, btw) to peanut butter pie. Few other venues in the City of Brotherly Love would have made a better match.
Opening act Laura Gibson was an amazing compliment to the talent that was to follow her. Mirah aside, a woman and her acoustic guitar have never been so sweet and vulnerable in front of an audience. Gibson’s smoky voice sang a mix of folky melancholic yet hopeful songs reminiscent of David Bazan in the form of a female and less angry. Her debut If You Come To Greet Me is 9 simple but beautiful tracks of a girl and her guitar well worth it.
Mirah took the stage with K Records label mates Spectratone International, with whom she released Share This Place, a concept album engulfed in a motif of insects which was premiered at the Seattle International Children’s Festival in May of last year. Influenced by the works of J. Henri Fabre, a 19th century naturalist, Mirah and Spectratone Intl. layered their respective sounds, Mirah’s golden voice and descriptive lyrics with Spectratone’s ambient and experimental sound to create an epic album revolving around insect life cycle and something very different than what Mirah fans are used to. Several of the songs featured a folky Latin vibe and one even had lyrics in Spanish while others, such as “Song of Psyche,” focused on Roman mythology for the lyrics citing figures such as Persephone, Cupid, Psyche and Jupiter.
Mirah’s sweet voice filled the venue as not a single person in the crowd dared to speak while she and Spectratone International performed, for fear of missing a single beautiful note, which speaks volumes of both Mirah and her fans. The first to speak was Mirah herself, asking the audience, “Do we need a moment to reconvene? I don’t know if you were expecting this.” She went on to explain that a small round screen behind her, which illustrated the narrative of each song, was designed by Britta Johnson, and was typically featured on 12′ tall screens, but World Caf� Live did not, unfortunately, have the space for such large screens. Spectratone International played wonderfully but showed little emotion while on stage. They provided a different sound for Mirah, which demonstrated her own range and ability to leave her musical comfort zone, which turned out to be a beautiful thing.
Setlist: Gestation of the Sacred Beetle, Following the Sun, My Prize, Luminescence, Song of Psyche, Supper, Emergence of the Primary Larva, My Lord Who Hums, Ecdysis, Love Song of the Fly, Community, Credo Cigalia
Mirah: bio | myspace
Spectratone International: bio
K Records: website | myspace
Laura Gibson: bio | myspace
Hush Records: website | myspace
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