She & Him show

Last night I saw She & Him at Terminal 5 in NYC. I arrived a little bit late, missing the majority of comedian Eugene Mirman's standup act. Zooey Deschanel and M.Ward graced the stage at 9 pm sharp with their backing band already in place. Aside from Ward's prominent lead guitar, they were also backed by a second guiatrist (who stayed mostly acoustic), a bassist, drummer, and two young ladies adding keyboard, percussion and harmonizing vocals. Deschanel herself banged a tambourine on many of the songs, but also played a rather disobedient organ throughout the show. The keyboard had a few sounds on it, one of which was a Wurlitzer that apparently had gone completely out of tune in transit. Because of this, she had to use the organ function, which had a deep jazz sound, which led to a few false starts to songs that featured her on keys, as she struggled to find the right octave to play. She fared quite well though, playing gracefully along with the band on poppy girl group bouncers like "Don't Look Back", "Over It And Over It Again", and the excellent single "In The Sun", all from their latest record Volume Two. Volume One was well represented as well. The majority of that record was played over the course of the night (they opened with four songs from their first album - "Change Is Hard", "I Thought I Saw Your Face Today", "I Was Made For You", and "Black Hole" before going into thei latest single, the dreamy "Thieves").

While the stripped down middle section that featured just Ward on acoustic guitar accompanying Deschanel's vocal was a highlight, the most exciting parts of the show were when Ward took the mic himself - first on the band's powerful remake of the NRBQ classic, "Riding In My Car" where he shares a verse both on the record and in live performance, then again later on two songs from Ward's solo catologue. M.Ward's latest record, Hold Time, features a blissful cover of Buddy Holly's "Rave On", reorganizing it into a midtempo sway, to which the She & Him band nailed. Both that song and the Ward original, "One Magic Trick", were further enhanced by Zooey's June Carter belting, backing up Ward's rough growl.

Probably the biggest delight of the night was delivered in their closing number, a chilled out cover of the Screaming Jay Hawkins standby, "I Put A Spell On You". The lights dimmed as Ward played an icy guitar thump over Deschanel's mile long wails. While she was showboating a little, you couldn't help but crack a smile as she stomped the ground like a pouting child, drawing out each note in a long, pronounced yell. At the song's conclusion, Ward then looped a twangy guitar loop that sounded straight out of Kill Bill, which was then repeated infinitely as the audience exited.

On a blistering hot day as July 6, 2010 was, it was nice to hear a set of fun, laid back, good old fashioned pop tunes. Never delving too far into their country tendencies, She & Him, along with their backing band, kept it light and fun, with a great sound and tight inner dynamics. One criticism could be said about some of their tempos, which while in many cases were faster than the record, on a couple of occasions they started running a little too fast which sounded borderline frantic. Still, the band's energy kept the crowd's way up and gave us all a swell show.