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Elvis Perkins
“I wanna hear one song to see if he’s whiny.”
That was the sentiment of at least one skeptic who queued up in front of the BMI Stage to hear singer-songwriter Elvis Perkins. I didn’t know much more about Perkins than the anonymous listener — mostly that he was the child of famous parents who died under unrelated but tragic circumstances and that he had won props for his debut album, “Ash Wednesday.” “Intense mourning and profound beauty,” observed one scribe.
So, OK. Nine songs later, the verdict was “Whiny? No.” But somber? You betcha. With song titles like “1-2-3 Goodbye” and “Doomsday” and lyrics like “I love you more in death/than I ever did in life” and “Black is the color of a strangled rainbow/just the color of my blood,” Perkins did not offer the hand-holding first-date set of the festival.
Perkins himself seemed blithe and outgoing onstage, but his material was made even darker by his oddly affectless voice, which had the effect of creating a certain detachment from his subject matter (some difficulty keeping on pitch didn’t help). With harmonium, marching band bass drum and trombone, his band, Dearland, had lots of musical colors to leaven Perkins’ stygian themes, and did so, particularly on “Doomsday” and “While You Were Sleeping.” But for this observer, Perkins remains an acquired taste. The skeptic wondering about Perkins’ whiny quotient? She stayed until the final notes.
(photo by Jay Janner AMERICAN-STATESMAN)
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