i first heard san francisco’s vetiver at berbati’s pan in portland in early 2004, just andy cabic singing warmly through his guitar & friends’ soft strings:
i remember simple things / how’s a building get so tall?
joanna newsom & devendra banhart played that nite too. i was writing some music bits for willamette week at the time, & went to see joanna perform after having interviewed her for a story earlier in the week (i have the most epic souvenir from all this… a show poster signed by the artist, andy, joanna & drawn on by devendra). but vetiver was a real surprise. the songs from that first album became a main element in the soundtrack of that summer. they were quiet & heady in the center of a summer that was not.
by the time the second album was released in 2006, i had moved to san francisco. a thousand things small to stellar in size faded that weird winter. & still, i walked to work each morning zenned out of my mind w/headphones on & this funny city breathing all around me. it’s still one of my favorite records. those songs invoke the feeling of living, not simple memories that can drag on minds such as mine:
some games you play to win / well, you lose
so last nite we went to see vetiver play a late tuesday show at the great american music hall. they went on at 11 & played until half past 12… two of my favorites from the first album, several fantastic versions from the second, a couple covers & a some fun new songs from an album they’ve been recording in sacramento. the new songs have a drive, a dance element, that’s hard to ignore. i had a smile pasted across my face all nite. afterward, i snagged two setlists from the stage & handed them out like candy to wide-eyed kids who were happy to be there like most folks are happy to get a paycheck.
it’s funny i’m not that kid anymore. although in some ways i suppose i am. anyway. then we walked home, toward an earlymorning alarm, & slept.