Iron & Wine + Johnny Flynn [Reading Concert Hall 4/11/07]

I love Iron & Wine. I love the whispering, the banjos and the beard. Mostly the beard. I'd be lying if I said Sam Beam's transition to a full and rather noisier band didn't disappoint me, but the chance to see him live with so little effort on my part was too good to pass up.

After a round of beard spotting in the crowd (well groomed full beard = 10 points ; ratty little trying to be indie beard = -100 points) we sat down to watch Johnny Flynn and the Sussex Wit. This raucous Folk outfit do not appear to be from Sussex, and I question how much wit goes into writing lines like "i'm a plough and you're a furough; I'm a fox and you're a burrow", but there you go. They are enthusiastic multiinstrumentalists with a clear love of banjo and mandolin as used by American acts like Langhorne Slim. But they still find room to fit an olde worlde Engligh aesthetic into their songs. Which is nice.

Then on came Sam with his Big Giant Beard and more recently acquired Big Giant Band. Eight people, to be precise. There's a sense that, still enjoying the novelty, he's eager to include all of them in everything. Dangerous ground for those fans who were won over by the lofi strumming of Creek Drank the Cradle. On Your Wings comes on awkwardly, suffering from the full band approach, at points I want to shoot the critic who said the best thing he produced pre-band was his Postal Service cover. Conversely, Upward Over the Mountain works, all slide guitar and lilting riffs, almost bettering the original.

The songs that suit the band are the ones they recorded in the first place, House by The Sea being an almost unimaginable gamble but very affecting, as is Ressurection Fern (not least because i saw one audience member crying).

When Sam finally picks up his acoustic guitar for Boy With a Coin a heckler shouts in protest, whether sarcastically it's hard to tell. In fact his entourage is only trimmed down for the encore, and that's a song from the Calexico collaboration album.

All in all it was an enjoyable and at times moving set, but Sam would maybe do well to leave at least some time for the older songs to be played acoustically.