[ATTENDED: March 31, 2023] Nicholas Merz
I has listened to Nicholas Merz’ record before this show and hadn’t liked it very much. Merz’ delivery is really slow and deep and is almost comical. he’s also got this kind of cowboy vibe which is really kind of weird. But the thing i disliked most about the record was the overuse of saxophone.
So I didn’t care if I arrived a few minutes late. But it turned out the traffic was really light that night and I wound up pretty early.
I talked to a couple of people who were discussing Godspeed You Black Emperor. And then Merz came on.
With one spotlight shining down on him, he sauntered slowly to the center of the stage as swirls of music played on the speakers. After an introduction, he began singing in that slow deliberate way of his. It was terrible. but it was also mesmerizing. i couldn’t stop watching. And soon enough, without him changing anything, I found myself enjoying it.
The swirling music made me a little light headed, perhaps. And that spotlight pulsed like a strobe, lighting him up in various ways. When that song wrapped up, he walked to a pedal steel guitar at the back of his setup and sat down. He played a simple chord structure, manipulated the sound a bit and looped it. It wound up having the same slow woozy feeling.
After the song he moved up front again and actually seemed to be moving in slow motion–deliberately making repeated gestures that were slower than the beat.
As I say, it was mesmerizing. And, indeed, so much so that the guy behind me passed out.
A woman ran up and said she was a nurse. She whisked him away and when she returned, she said someone else had passed out in the back of the room.
Merz either didn’t notice or didn’t care (I assume didn’t notice, it happened pretty quickly), but I had to wonder if his music and stage show created this dizzying sensation. Or if they were both drunk. I’ll never know.
I had no idea how long his set would last. Twenty minutes? Forty minutes?
At one point he put the microphone away and sang a verse of …poetry? His clean voice was amazing–not all too different from the mic’d voice, but the way he did it was so immediate.
The set went on like this for thirty or so minutes and then he sat at the pedal steel and played a song I recognized.
He did an amazing cover of Chris Isaak’s “Wicked Game”– even more slow and moody than the original.
With the way the songs drifted and slowed and seemed to meander, it wasn’t exactly clear how many songs he sang. But when I compared the lyrics to online songs, I came up with this setlist.
I don’t think I’d see him again, but he was aso much better than I expected.
- Drifting Palomino
- The Dixon Deal
- Wicked Game
- Young Man, Short in Stature
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