Concert Review: James Parenti Shows Mercury Lounge How To Get Heaven Even If You Look Like Hell
James Parenti might be the second coming of MIchael Stipe from R.E.M. Not only does his voice carry the rich resonance of this acclaimed singer, but so does his interpretation of music that shows our own skin can feel like it drowns us. Performing at Mercury Lounge and singing tracks off his newest album, You Look Like Hell, one could, immediately, see that this was an artist all about the times you have had to still live even if you felt like you were dying.
Now, I do not mean to go so dark in my review because when you are listening to good music, there is no need for such grimness, and James Parenti is GOOD MUSIC! Yet, his songs are all about the ways and days we put our “face” on, despite our hearts/ souls feeling faceless. Tracks like “You Do, You Can” , “What Are We Gonna Do”, and “Drove All Night” are like sonic spears to the instances you had to compartmentalize a downed sentiment or shrug off, for the sake of sanity, the fact that some pains do not get better, but they can still get healed. Sometimes, a loss truly is a loss, and the importance/ luxury of James Parent’s voice derives in this fact. When he sings, especially tracks like “You Look Like Hell”, he sounds like an angel that is drowning in a pool of decisions or rather lack of ones. I always marvel at how falling in love both empowers and makes us feel helpless. On one hand, love gives us the balance we need to go through pain, but, on the other, it does resolve or stop it. This truth is seen in every lyric Parenti wails like a soul crying from volcanic tension. Wails and whimpers are what he vocally emotes through songs that are arranged to, instrumentally, feel like a wave pool growing bigger and bigger in tumultuous waves.
Forgive me as I get sentimental, but through James Parenti, and even my most recent reviews, I am beginning to witness the beauty of Millennials music and movies is that so much of our creative content discusses the search to feel stable through instability. Love, career, and dreams all seem to be running cracks on life’s groundwork that we cannot make still, but, somehow, must be still ourselves. This thought was my epiphany through Parenti’s show as he frothed and felt every lyric like it was the only pillar he had to stand on in an earthquake of emotions and sounds. For More Information On James Parenti Click Here
