The comfortably full Majestic Theatre chuckled appreciatively at Beam’s bone-dry humor, as his fingers began picking “Bitter Truth,” a tune with some vicious one-liners (“There’s a message in my eyes/You’d better love yourself, ‘cause I tried”). It was another hit of sweet and stinging, a combination in ample supply throughout Iron & Wine’s gorgeous catalog.
Saturday’s performance in downtown Dallas was a quick return for the 50-year-old Beam. In February, he was in Oak Cliff to perform at The Texas Theatre with a handful of songs in support of Who Can See Forever, a documentary about his life and work. In the intervening six months, Iron & Wine released a new record, Light Verse (his seventh full-length to date), which anchored the 90-minute showcase.
Beam was joined by a tightly knit quintet — bassist Katie Ernst, keyboardist Rob Burger, violinists Rhea Fower and Lauren Baba, and drummer Beth Goodfellow — whose contributions gave heft and depth to the often bleakly beautiful songs.
The music was further enhanced by the contributions of Sarah Fornace and Julia Miller of Chicago’s Manual Cinema, a performance collective specializing in handmade shadow puppetry and cinematic projections.
Eschewing digital technology for something more esoteric and tactile, Iron & Wine married the intimacy of its music with the innovation of shadows upon the wall — a storytelling technique as old as humanity.
Warm Fusion
That fusion of then and now was an often powerful effect — the Majestic Theatre stage, stippled with Edison-looking light bulbs on poles, was otherwise bare, as Manual Cinema’s work was projected on a screen just above the band.At multiple moments Saturday, Manual Cinema and Iron & Wine were synchronous, a pleasurable blur of performance styles — the paper rainstorm billowing as the musicians performed “Caught in the Briars/Sundown (Back in the Briars)” was transfixing, as were the flurry of visuals during “Call It Dreaming.”
Another pleasant surprise Saturday was just how funky and freewheeling the music felt throughout the night — South Carolina native Beam’s demeanor has always been deadpan amusing, which can leaven fragile moments like “On Your Wings,” but the delicate folk often gave way to funky, full-steam presentations during the band’s time on stage: “Boy with a Coin” built up to a muscular climax, as did the jubilant “Sweet Talk” and the propulsive “Teeth in the Grass.”
Thoughtfully considered, exquisitely rendered things can be a dicey proposition in the current moment’s move-fast-get-attention cultural climate — indeed, more than a couple times Saturday, often during a particularly hushed, tranquil moment, some moron let loose a rowdy yell better suited for a bar over in Deep Ellum than the room in which we all found ourselves — so it’s heartening that Beam and his bandmates still persevere, carefully collecting moments of crystalline beauty to hold and share with those willing to listen.
Iron & Wine’s catalog may never yield the “feel-good hit of the year,” but it’s hard not to feel better about life in general as you step back out into the night, the sounds of Beam’s songs echoing in your ears.
