Van Etten and Knox charm intimate Cactus crowd

Sadly, the show -- set up by Muzzle of Bees' Ryan Matteson and WMSE's Ryan Schleicher -- wasn't especially well attended. My count was roughly 25 on a relatively warm, quiet Thursday night in the heart of the Milwaukee winter.

After talking music with Matteson at the bar and about baseball with both Ryans, we were happy to see Knox step up onto the stage at about 10.

Knox is a bit hard to describe. An adept pianist with a distinctive, ebullient voice, Knox is personable onstage but reserved and looking a bit uncomfortable. His unaccompanied songs -- part Tin Pan Alley, part Tom Waits, part Randy Newman, part kinda operatic -- are filled with dark humor and imagery. You may laugh one minute and gasp the next.

When he carefully picks up the kazoo in one song you're prepared to chuckle, but his tasteful use of this instrument that is often treated as a throwaway toy brings you back down to Earth to admire his skill once more.

After Knox's set, Matteson and I chatted with Van Etten about road trips, her tour stops, MapQuest journeys gone awry and porcelain sinks. Yes, porcelain sinks.

Confident and comfortable offstage, Van Etten looks a little nervous up there talking to the crowd between songs, grasping her stunning red Gibson ES 135.

But during her stark songs drawn from two CDs -- her debut full-length, "Because I Was In Love" and a self-titled disc of home recordings -- she looks like she's in the zone, gazing off as she sings familiar songs like "I Wish I Knew" and "For You," alongside new material. Her voice, when it wavers a bit -- as it sometimes does -- brings to mind Beth Orton's.

Van Etten's music -- like Knox's -- is unadorned and guileless. The result Thursday night were performances by two great voices from the underground.

2 comments about this article. Post a comment / write a review.

Recent Talkbacks ...

Posted by loneshoe on Jan. 22, 2010 at 9:14 a.m. (report)

I agree. I hate to sound like an old person, but Mad Planet starts their shows late on weekdays as well. I would have loved to have seen Van Etten at CC and Rural Alberta Advantage at Planet, but with the main band usually not even starting until midnight or later, it makes it difficult to be functional at work the next morning.

Posted by jetkat on Jan. 21, 2010 at 12:58 p.m. (report)

It would help if CC started their shows earlier; especially on weekdays.

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