By Matty Bannond
Something chlorine-scented is heroically battling the stench of mold at
JAKI—but the club’s neatly spaced overhead tube lights have shrugged a meek
surrender to shadow. Perhaps jet-black paint or glittery murals cover the
walls. Maybe tooth fairies or werewolves fill the fifty seats. The naked
eye gets bundled up in a pitch-dark blanket at this highly regarded,
subterranean venue on April 7.
On a low stage, guitarist and vocalist Wendy Eisenberg performs alongside
two collaborators all the way from the USA and one comrade based right here
in Cologne, Germany. Violin and pedal steel guitar player More Eaze (Mari
Rubio) and drummer Ryan Sawyer have traversed perilous landscapes and
seascapes to support Set One. Cellist Emily Wittbrodt has flopped out of
bed to join Set Two.
The show starts with “Lasik”, which also kicks off Eisenberg’s 2024 release
Viewfinder (American Dreams Records). Like an angel’s wingtip, the
guitarist’s delicate singing slices through thick clouds of sound from
violin and drums. Eisenberg reaches for typically spidering melodic shapes
beneath lyrics that mix the plain-speaking intimacy of a teenager’s diary
with harder-won, slower-cooked insights.
More Eaze switches to pedal steel for “Another Lifetime Floats Away” and “I
Don’t Miss You”. The instrument’s slippery, meowing properties make it a
neat fit with Eisenberg’s vocals. Again, the lyrics tell homely stories
wrapped in near-translucent layers of deeper messaging. There are elements
of country music in the first of these two tunes, with echoes of Johnny
Marr’s guitar in the second.
A cello and some sheet music arrive on stage after the interval. The
quartet presents three Wittbrodt compositions that unfold tenderly behind
her patient poetry. Next comes a More Eaze piece balanced on shifting
sonic-tectonic plates. Sawyer then sings “Hate Is The New Love”, taken from
The Mekons’ album OOOH (Quartersick Records, 2002). His faltering
vocals bring out the mournful quality of the song text, which feels bang
up-to-date despite its quarter-century vintage.
Big emotions run through the music of this small group. Wendy Eisenberg is
a fancy-free artist who flirts with every style, from free jazz to folk
storytelling and miles beyond, without ever settling down with one of them.
Even with foul smells and disorienting gloom in JAKI’s windowless
underground vault, this trio-plus-one gave its audience something fresh and
bright to carry home.