The Magnetic Fields

Wilshire Ebell Theatre - March 2, 2010

Live Review by Adam McKibbin

Magnetic Fields mastermind Stephin Merritt, you may have heard, does not like to tour.  If you haven’t heard, he’ll be glad to tell you (and, to be fair, the press will be glad to keep asking him).  While he suffers from hyperacusis – a condition that can make even audience applause register painfully in his ear – his stated reasons have more to do with some somewhat shaky theories about the awkwardness of reproducing recorded music in a live context.

So how much joy is possible in an audience when there’s little of it to be found emanating from stage?  Some, as it turns out, if the songs are good enough.  Merritt’s catalog is so exceptional that it’s still rather riveting even when performed with, well, less than a complete shit.  With the band seated and practically motionless, the night had the vibe of an NPR session.  But when they started playing – soft and subtle – and Merritt took the lead on “Lindy-Lou” (originally done by Cibo Matto’s Miho Hatori on Hyacinths and Thistles, from the Merritt side-band The 6ths), all signs pointed to an exceptional evening.  While he’s benefited from an array of vocalists to bring his songs to life, Merritt’s own baritone is really the best vessel for his droll, bitter, fantastical, and sometimes achingly sweet stories.  Just the simple humming of the melody of “Lindy-Lou” was one of the more evocative moments of the evening, in part because it was a recontextualization of the song, but largely because of the melody itself, which is so tender that you can imagine a father humming it as a lullaby to his little girl.

The setlist skipped around, including more 6ths material than expected, and not over-drawing from the band’s latest, Realism (though unfortunately including that album’s worst track, “The Dolls’ Tea Party”).  Not surprisingly, 69 Love Songs provided some of the night’s highlights, including a lively spin through “The One You Really Love.”  Shirley Simms is a wonderfully unique vocal counterpart, taking the lead on, among others, “The Nun’s Litany” and post-intermission, second-set opener “Kiss Me Like You Mean It.”  Stripped of its Distortion distortion, the unabashed bawdiness of “The Nun’s Litany” rose front and center and provoked the biggest laughs of the night.  Claudia Gonson – well, maybe it was an off night.  Never the most interesting voice in the Magnetic Fields universe, her lead songs fell flat, and her between-song banter seemed forced, vaguely unlikable and pretentious (pretension being a quality more tolerable amongst the brilliant, naturally).

The second set was more lackluster than the first, though still marked with some signature moments like “All the Umbrellas in London,” even more mournful in this stripped-down setting.  “100,000 Fireflies” was probably the most surefire crowd pleaser for an encore closer (aside from anyone who used “Book of Love” as a wedding song), and again provided an interesting opportunity to hear Merritt on lead vocals on a track he’d originally heard in someone else’s voice.  When it finished, he dashed immediately offstage without another word; surely the tragic poetic potential of a man having to flee the sound of approval and affection because it literally brings pain would not be lost on him.