She & Him came to Kansas City this past Monday, August 30th, and as a pretty good fan of their music, I decided to go. I can’t remember the last show I went to, it’s been that long. We could be talking ten plus years. I don’t listen to local radio so I had no idea that a local radio station was promoting the show. I was surprised when we drove up to venue that there was a decent sized line out the door waiting to go in. I really had no idea they were that popular. We got in line and after a nominal wait we were at the door. Taped to the doors were signs saying “No Cameras. No Video. No Audio. Please do not bring any recording device into venue.” Perhaps the signs were some hipster’s attempt to be ironic, since everyone went into the building with a cell phone in hand, almost every one of them able to take a picture, and in many cases high quality video. I took it to mean the owner of the venue was clueless.
The opening act was a group named “The Chapin Sisters” who I have never heard of. They both had good voices, and appropriate to their style guitar skills. However, their lyrics were consistently sad, depressing, and borderline suicidal. They closed with “I’m Digging a Hole” which was a total downer to end on. By the way, if this kind of music interests you, check em out here: http://www.thechapinsisters.com/ .
After about a twenty minute changeover, She & Him came on stage. “She” is Zooey Deschanel;”Him” is M. Ward. Not much initial talk with the audience, just playing their songs, all, I noticed, with a quicker tempo. Their renditions were pretty close to the feel of the album, with Chapin Sisters providing back up vocals and acting uncharacteristically upbeat, and a backing band made up of a trio of older guys. The playing was pretty tight, but I was disappointed with the mixing. The soundboard guy was sitting off to the side of the stage, and I don’t think he could tell how it sounded out in the audience that well. Zooey’s vocals were sometimes mixed down too low, the lead guitar player wasn’t always clear, and the bass from the drums and bass guitar would get kind of muddy at times. I’m perhaps being a little picky, but my friend who came with me, agreed.
After roughly one hour and fifteen minutes, they left the stage, with M. Ward and Zooey walking off early to allow the backing band to play off the last song. As soon as they walked off stage, a lot of people left the area where we were sitting, not realizing there was almost definitely going to be an encore. A guitar tech was out on stage almost immediately tweaking M. Ward’s guitar, the house lights were still off, and the venue hadn’t started playing the “leave” music. Of course, they all came back and played two more songs, closing with a cover of a Chuck Berry song. Then the house lights came on, and the “leave” music started playing.
All in all, it was about a ninety minute show plus the thirty minutes The Chapin Sisters played. I’m glad I went, I really enjoyed the music, and I would recommend any fans of She & Him to see them live if they could.
