Camera Obscura with Laura Cantrell at First Avenue, Minneapolis (26 Jul 2014)

“You’ve been a great audience. Thank you for coming to see us … besides you’ve got lots of choices, thanks for seeing us,” announced Tracyanne Campbell of Camera Obscura. Ask anyone in attendance, and they’ll tell you that they’ve made the right choice in seeing Camera Obscura at First Avenue, last night, Saturday, July 26th.

 

Opening up the show was traditional Country singer Laura Cantrell. Cantrell apologized for playing some new songs from her latest record, No Way There From Here… and then quickly pointed out, “I supposed they’re all new songs to you, because this is my first time playing in Minneapolis.”

The story between these two bands goes back ten years ago, when they met at John Peel’s birthday party. The two became and remained friends and eventually, (as Tracyanne would later explained), when they planned on touring the USA again, they asked Cantrell to tour with them (expecting her to say “no”). So here they were, on the last date on the USA July 2014 tour.

Accompanying Cantrell on stage were Mark Spencer (guitarist from Son Volt) and Jimmy Ryan (singer of Blood Oranges). Spencer played regular and steel guitars, while Ryan played notably the mandolin.

There were three stand-out songs on Cantrell’s set that I immediately was drawn to. The first was “Can’t Wait”, which had some very clever lyrics about love and cooking in the kitchen. The second was “Starry Skies”, the preceding single to No Way There From Here, sounded just perfect (as if it was lifted from the studio recording). And lastly, “Yonder Comes a Freight Train” has that rambling country sound … musically and lyrically a really fun song. Basically, the song is about a hobo who travels the world on a freight train.

Camera Obscura was one of those bands that all my sissy music friends were telling me to check out. So my first introduction to them, was “Your Sound”, which I picked up as an import single. Let me tell you, I was not impressed. To be fair, the band was still struggling to find, er, for a lack of a better word, their sound. That single actually didn’t even feature Tracyanne Campbell on lead vocals… she would become the voice of the band when Biggest Bluest Hi Fi came out in 2001. By the time I heard “Eighties Fan”, I was in love with the band.

I never caught Camera Obscura on their first US tour, but I did manage to see them at the Varsity Theater in July 27, 2006. Saw the band again (twice!) at SXSW 2009, but ended up missing their last appearance at the Cedar Cultural Center, around late May. Needless to say, it’s good to see Camera Obscura again at First Avenue, last night.

Tracyanne Campbell was in good spirit. Apparently they don’t have “Pedal Pubs” in Scotland, as Campbell quipped, “Yeah, that thing wouldn’t last two minutes in Glasgow!”

Camera Obscura’s set was basically the same set they’ve been playing throughout the country. Half of the songs were taken from Desire Lines and My Maudlin Career, both albums available via 4AD Records.

The more upbeat songs were hits with the fans (“New Year’s Resolution”, “Let’s Get Out Of This Country”, “Do It Again”, and, of course, “Lloyd, I’m Ready To Be Heartbroken”). Only one early song were played in their set, sandwiched between two songs for the encore, “Books Written for Girls”, which Tracyanne described as “a real golden oldie.”

As they started to play “Razzle Dazzle Rose”, Tracyanne promised that they won’t take so long to play Minneapolis again. “Okay we’ll I hope to see you soon. Maybe next year?” As they walked off the stage, my head was replaying, “let’s do it again!“

Camera Obscura and Laura Cantrell just ended their USA July 2014 tour. Camera Obscura’s Desire Lines is available now on 4AD, and Laura Cantrell’s latest No Way There From Here is available now on Thrift Shop Recordings/Red Eye.