Concert Review: Slow Club Bring Earth And Sky To Le Poisson Rouge

Slow Club are one of the top bands to turn an average, hard day into a good one. Rebecca Lucy Taylor and Charles Watson have created a folk-duo that echoes the Soho Days of the early 60’s, where young kids , like Bob Dylan, perused through NYC bars with a dream and a guitar. They strikes up the same dreamy sentiments at Le Poisson Rouge (LPR) with a performance of lyrics on hard-luck, but an energy that exuded a positive chance. 

When you think of a person’s voice, you may not see it as a positive energy, but both Watson ad Taylor have vocals that prove singing is enlivening. Whom has not heard a Whitney Houston riff or a Led Zeppelin cry, and not felt their voices strike one’ spirit? Watson shined at LPR with a voice that sounds like warmth in winter. He simmering vocals add a fatherly wisdom to Slow Club’s already nuanced lyrics, and he helped give the duo’s concert an earthly foundation, while Rebecca Lucy Taylor skyrocketed songs into Heaven. She is living proof that records do not always encapsulate the full talent of an artist. While both Watson and Taylor have made phenomenal albums like their most recent one, One Day All of This Won’t Matter Any More, they are a prime example that live concerts can do more justice to artistic talent than recorded sessions. With Watson’s earthbound voice and Taylor’s celestial one, the folk-pop duo furthered a theme that courses through their music: humanity’s internal battle between reaching for their sky and staying down to earth. 

Slow Club – Silver Morning
Silver Morning

Lyrically, Slow Club is about the “day to day” struggles that occurs when we are wrapped between our dreams and our routines. When you hear songs like “In Waves” and “Tears of Joy” live, the grounded, somber nature of the songs feels more received. While their recordings have more synthetic, indie-pop sonics, their live performance drives up that Slow Club is also a folk-duo. Thus, their lyrics on deciphering one’s humanity, the whimsical nature of their string arrangements, and the vocal contrast, yet wonderful harmonies of Watson and Taylor leap out to the audience even more. Yet, what humbled me most about their performance is their inner force. While Watson exuded his own musical prowess in a more subtle fashion, like a man writing a meekly stunning love letter to his wife, Taylor felt like a cosmic boom on the microphone. She, literally, performed with an inner fire that resonated with the power that one would equate with “pop divas”. Yet, because Slow Club aims their music for the grandeur of being human, her performance zest does not come off demagogic as much as empowering.