The Wake

Despite the weather, a full house braved the frigid temperatures on Feb. 17 to see The Pines at the Cedar Cultural Center. The venue, as always, had an intimate feel and the weather outside only made it warmer. The bartenders told jokes about bartenders and the crowed milled around with steaming cups of tea and cider. Conversations about the weather filled the chilly concert hall until the first note was heard from the opening act, The Spaghetti Western String Company.

The avant-garde ensemble wowed new and old fans alike with their unique style. The band, which defies an easy definition, played a mix of folk, jazz and bluegrass which erred towards the baroque. The musical dynamics of the award-winning group were phenomenal. Each of the musicians had a simple, rhythmic part while the lead drifted among banjo, mandolin, violin and the occasional guitar. The band, which has a history of writing film scores, was very skilled at creating a mood. “The Theme of Red Balloon” featured a driving banjo part and time changes that mimicked the bouncy, floating feeling of the red balloon. The nearly all-acoustic performance was punctuated with one startling beautiful vocal song, titled “Luna Marinara.” Like the band’s name, the song was a nod to founding member Mike Rossetto’s Italian heritage. The mandolin player, Nick Lemme, sang the operatic tune with such resonance it sent chills up my spine. The quartet ended the set with an eerie song that made use of strange distorted vocals via an old baby monitor.

After an intermission of praise The Spaghetti Western and more hot tea, The Pines took over the stage and thanked their friends “The Spaghetti O’s.” The bands have played together and collaborated for several years on albums and in concert. “The Pine Nuts,” as Rossetto affectionately named them, were the perfect foil for The Spaghetti Western and warmed up the crowd with a foot tapping, bluesy sound. David Huckfelt and Benson Ramsey expanded beyond their normal duo with an onstage accordion and piano player and Ramsey’s little brother on keyboard. The Pines, who are signed to the Iowa-based Trailer Records, are a mix of bluesy grooves and folk influences. Ramsey’s raspy vocals lend an ethereal feel to the band’s mostly bittersweet love songs. The band strayed from their normal low-fi, high-energy shows with the extra two members. The change would have been a disappointment, but the additional musicians helped create the wall of sound that The Pines normally achieve with a faster rhythm and more distortion. The set sounded more like the band’s studio albums and less like their boozy bar shows. The slower pace made it easier to meditate on the poignant lyrics and song writing. The foot-tapping rhythm made songs reminiscent of Nick Cave romance and somber folk music easier to swallow. And somehow the band made their rendition of “You Are My Sunshine” sound somber with a slow, waltz rhythm.

Midway through the set The Spaghetti Western came back on stage and performed a collection of songs with The Pines. The two wildly different styles combined flawlessly showing the members history of collaboration and fantastic stage dynamics.