Bonnie Prince Billy

....i just saw his show in Madrid last night. I am totally haggard today. He was with a different band than the last one I saw. Although i think the lumberjack bassist was with him last time. The bassist is like the ox pulling the cart, he makes everything possible but noone seems to notice. They are going for...and producing... a really rich and polished sound, really very different from the more raw Palace Brothers days. It sounds as if there are more instruments than there really are. I like some bands for their minimalism (e.g. almost all punk rock is pretty minimal), but this band is the opposite...and they are damed good. They used alot of harmonic vocals complemented by Jennifer Hutt, who is also an excellent violinist and not so painful to look at either. She was the highlight really, the one who got to do all the small important tasks while the bassist heaved away to no applause. There was another singer/guitar player named Emmet Kelly...the name of a famous clown. It was weird for me to see Will Oldham focusing on singing rather than playing (he played on most songs but often not major parts)...he's known as an unusual singer and is one of my favorite lyricists (and funny, disturbing, and cryptically dirty), but not necessarily a good singer. But he stood up there as if it was his job. Without an instrument his stage presence and persona, and occasional facial twitches, are reminiscent of Jim Carrey playing the grinch. He is really playing up the scary inbred hillbilly persona, but cracks numerous silly jokes. I still can't believe they played here....awesome.