Concert Review: Karen Elson Gives A Good Cry And Song At Rough Trade NYC
Going to see Karen Elson, after listening to the wonderful Double Roses, was an exciting proposition. I compared the album to a beautiful Edgar Allan Poe poem with lyrical captures of the beauty and bitterness of life’s nature. Unsurprisingly, the dual nature leaped gorgeously from Elson’s stage presence, but what surprised me more was the intention of the crowd.
You ever say, “I need a good cry”, and put on a sad movie or a sad song? We all have had moments where we have directly looked for sadness and found the tools needed to produce our cathartic cry. In some ways, Double Roses is an album to put on when you want to cry from how wonderful love is as an emotion, but how cruel it can be when distanced. Songs like, “Call Your Name” and “Wonderblind” stirred concert-goers to close their eyes and drift into any sadness they could find, in their mind, at the moment. As Elson sang with a yearning, as if she was literally watching her lover’s ship sail, her performance became cinematic in scope. Hence, why Rough Trade NYC was filled with avid fans who sought her for her capacity to make the tragedy of love lost a more tolerant ordeal. After all, it is better to have loved than to never have loved, at all. Thus, in a way, Elson’s music is a melancholic, pensive celebration that, at least, you had a love to lose rather than never know what it was to have gained one. As the lights changed, the harp and violin played, Elson moved her body and arms with an elegance that a ballerina would carry dancing Juliet to her Romeo. Elson knows how act a song like an actress, but she also knows how to keep a crowd pleased.
As she struggled throughout the show to tune her guitar, she laughed and turned, what could have been a very awkward ordeal, into an inside joke between her and the audience. Honestly, I do not know if she ever tuned her guitar, but I do know it did not matter. Her voice and bright personality were too enrapturing to care, especially in the songs “Why I Am I Waiting?” and “Hell Or Highwater” , which, in concert, appeared like Fleetwood Mac demos of “Rhiannon” or “Gypsy”. They carried that “magic meets nature” brew to transform her lyrics on loss into femme-marches of empowerment. If on record, they were tracks on being marred by confusion, in her live show, they became songs about resolving to be clear. The contrast was lovely, and helped me understand why her avid fans, that cheered and took every opportunity to banter with her, had paid for a concert that was somber in theme but sentimental in action. As previously mentioned, we all may look for great films and songs that make us cry for catharsis, but we also cannot deny their beauty. Karen Elson, in performance and sound, is an undeniable beauty. You are willing to hear about yearning and loss because there is always wisdom to be found even if sparked by the darkest of feelings. For More Information On Karen Elson Click Here.
