Laura Marling at The Assembly at the Woman’s Club, Minneapolis (08/14/13)
Laura Marling just started her U.S. Summer 2013 tour for her latest album Once I Was An Eagle last night at the sold-out Assembly at the Woman’s Club show in Minneapolis.
Tour Dates
08/28/13 – Louisville – Big Four Bridge Lawn
08/30/13 – Philadelphia – Prince Music Theatre
09/01/13 – Vineyard Haven – Martha’s Vineyard
09/03/13 – Somerville – Somerville Theatre
09/04/13 – Washington – Lincoln Theatre
09/06/13 – Woodstock – Bearsville Theater
09/08/13 – Brooklyn – Music Hall of Williamsburg
09/09/13 – Brooklyn – Music Hall of Williamsburg
Opening up for Marling was Minneapolis’ Paul Metzger, who started his set with a humorous observation: what a better way to open up for a young lovely woman, than an old man with a banjo. The most interesting thing about Metzger is that his banjo, is in fact, unique to Metzger, as he modified the instrument to serve his needs. The neck’s a little longer, there’s extra strings, etc. As you watch him masterfully play his set, you realized that he’s probably the only person that can play this banjo.
“Punctual” Laura Marling came on stage at 9:30 and started her set with an epic 16-minute song, combining “Take The Night Off”, “I Was An Eagle” and “You Know”. After her official second song, “”Master Hunter”, she apologized for making us sit through the extra-long opening song. No one minded, of course.
Marling’s quite funny, a nervous kind of funny, on stage. For instance, she admitted that after touring solo, that her shows are now 20% more tuning. Of course, she does what all musicians do when they tune, they prepare for onstage banters. It’s not as easy as it look, because often there’s more stories than there are actual tuning.
My favorite tuning story was about paying $5 to park at the Science Museum, only to spend about 20 minutes at the gift shop to purchase a photo of “The Great American rocks” and metal container that gets ride of garlic smell.
As to be expected, Marling played songs from Once I Was An Eagle, including the opening tracks and her last couple of tracks, “Once” and “Saved These Words”. She doesn’t do encores, so for encore fans, she suggested they think of “Once” as the last song.
Making up the rest of her set, including her favorites, “Rambling Man”, “I Speak Because I Can”, “What He Wrote” and “Sophia”. But perhaps the most interesting choice was her cover of Simon & Garfunkel’s “Kathy’s Song”, a song that she confessed that she wished she’d written.
Laura Marling is currently on tour for Once I Was An Eagle. The album is out now on Ribbon Records.
