We caught Jeremy Messersmith Friday night at the White Rabbit Cabaret in Fountain Square. I’ve been pretty into his most recent record, The Reluctant Graveyard, and I was excited to hear some of his new songs live. He played a fantastic set to an intimate candlelit crowd, and it was one of those rare live experiences where I found myself sitting back and thinking “What on earth is everyone else in this city even doing?” He was that great. Recorded, Messersmith utilizes all kinds of bells and whistles to bring his pop confections to life, but in person it becomes apparent that his songs stand equally well on their own, as he utilized a loop pedal to create backbeats and harmonies with himself right on-stage (for my favorite example of the night, check out the video of him playing “Miracles” below). His loop-tracking was great, but what struck me the most was how clean and clear his voice and playing was – every song sounded absolutely pristine.
Unfortunately the venue dashed our hopes for an encore by turning up the house music too soon, but we did have the chance to say hi to Jeremy after the show. He was completely charming, and during our brief conversation we discovered that he’d actually read our review of The Reluctant Graveyard last week, right here on our little blog! (In case you’re reading this – HI JEREMY!) Anyway, it was a great show, and after spending our last two weekends at ridiculously humongous live events, it was so nice to sit back and enjoy an incredibly talented musician in such an intimate setting.
Setlist and mp3’s after the jump.
