I Just Read About That…

[ATTENDED: November 20, 2024] The Black Heart Procession

The opening act for this show wasn’t announced until a few days before the show.  But The Black Heart Procession had been opening all the other shows so I assumed it would be them.

I had never heard of them and assumed that they were some new young band.  And I was completely wrong.  The band was formed in 1997 (!) by Pall Jenkins who has played with a bunch of different bands and even did work with Isaac Brock in Ugly Casanova.  He and Tobias Nathaniel (these two are the main force of the band) create soundtrack music in the way Tindersticks make soundtrack music.  The big difference is that Black Heart Procession is very spare.  For most songs it is Nathaniel on keys and Jenkins on guitar.  With an unintroduced drummer playing along.

The songs are mostly slow with lots of reverb on the guitar.  

And Jenkins’ voice.  When he came out he was wearing a suit jacket and sunglasses.  He looked older than he probably is (although he’s obviously not a young guy) and he belted out songs so full of remorse that, despite the quietness of the song, no one talked through the weird opening song.  Which, I have to emphasize, FEATURED A MUSICAL SAW!

That’s right, a band that presumably no one had heard of, came out on stage with a keyboard and a musical saw.

I love an unusual instrument so I was delighted.  And he played it to its haunting apex.  He then stood up and, to minimal backing music he belted out

I never knew what you were trying to say
You spoke to me from outside the glass
I could never understand your words 
never knew what you were trying to say 
I saw you place your hand over your heart
And I can hear the waves just outside your gate
I’m going away
I’m going away

He finished up the song on the saw and the audience was kind of stunned.

For the remaining songs he played guitar but still sang the haunting songs with such a commanding voice.  The crowd grew restless after a song or two, but I can imagine that if you were to go to a show with them headlining, the crowd would be absolutely silent as the sounds echoed around the room.

At some point Jenkins said that it had been a long time since they played Philly (the band went on hiatus for a while, setlist suggests they were last in Philly in 2009).

I’m not sure how much I enjoyed the set.  I wasn’t really prepared for it and I was distracted by loud talkers behind me.  I would never purposefully listen to one of their records, but if they ever played live around here again, I’d want to check it out–if only to get up close to the singing saw (which showed up again in the final  song).

SETLIST