Dosh - "Capture The Flag"

Dosh - "Capture The Flag" from anticon. on Vimeo.

Damien Jurado @ Northstar Bar, Philadelphia, PA - May 30th

Friday night at the Northstar Bar in Philadelphia, Damien Jurado performed like he was deep into working something out. I’ve only ever seen him live once before, and that occasion was actually a forum on Nick Drake so that he didn’t even play any of his own music, but I can imagine pretty well that each of Damien Jurado’s performances is something like it was this night.

After a long wait following the opening act, Damien Jurado finally made his way on stage, grabbed his guitar, quickly settled into the small chair set behind the microphone and got down to business. No introductory babble, no between song banter, no explanatory discourse, no attempt at humor or charm. Merely a mumbled, nearly inaudible “Hi, I’m Damien Jurado from Seattle, Washington,” and song after song of heartfelt, intense and earnest playing.

Often with eyes shut, his size dwarfing his guitar so that it seemed like a ukulele in his arms, singing with passion that one would only seem comfortable unleashing in the privacy of his own bedroom, his absolute sincerity and generosity was moving and even humbling. Frustratingly, half the room was shamelessly chatting, biding time before Jeremy Enigk, and yet Damien Jurado played unbothered, almost as if none of us were there at all. And perhaps this would be a deterrent for some other performers with no active pursuit of engaging the audience, but it’s fitting that a songwriter who creates such honest and raw music would present them with such a completely unassuming approach. Really, I felt like I shouldn’t be watching, but I was so grateful that I was.

Damien Jurado - "what were the chances"
Damien Jurado - "white center"
buy his music from Secretly Canadian