Land of Talk played Mercury Lounge in NYC w/ Surprise Me Mr Davis & North Highlands - pics & setlist

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Posted in music | pictures on November 24, 2009

Land of Talk played Mercury Lounge in NYC w/ Surprise Me Mr Davis & North Highlands - pics & setlist

words & photos by Dominick Mastrangelo

Land of Talk

A few songs into Land Of Talk's set at Mercury Lounge on Saturday night the sold out audience began asking for more vocals. "I think all of your bodies are absorbing my vocals," said frontwoman, Elizabeth Powell.

Things are different than when last Powell played New York. It's been a rough year since her voice gave out and forced the band off tour from support of last year's excellent Some Are Lakes (which included dates with Broken Social Scene). Powell, who was singing with BSS in addition to her own band, had surgery to correct damage to her vocal chords, she took voice lessons, wrote several songs which make up their new Fun and Laughter EP as well as the forthcoming album which the band began recording last month. She wears an in-ear monitor in concert now and everything is clearly in place to protect her distinctive voice that used to go head-to-head with her razor-sharp guitar playing. Now her voice has acquiesced, it's a bit softer though she did let it go a few times, especially during "All My Friends" and the line "Hustling leaves me white hot / blue in the face / eyes blood shot." But despite her subdued vocals the packed crowd was still riveted; her guitar playing, the drumming of Andrew Barr and multi-insturmental duties of Joe Yarmush all outstanding through a set that didn't end until half past 1am.

The show was one of a few dates with Surprise Me Mr. Davis (Marco Benevento & members of The Slip). More pictures from the NYC show below...

North Highlands

Surprise me, Mr. Davis

Land of Talk

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Tags: Land of Talk, Liz Powell, Marco Benevento, Mercury Lounge, North Highlands, Surprise Me Mr Davis, The Slip

Posted on November 24, 2009 12:04 PM

Comments (22)

north highlands are lovely.

Posted by Anonymous | November 24, 2009 12:10 PM

so bummed i was too hungover to go

Posted by Anonymous | November 24, 2009 12:17 PM

Joe Croke has AIDS

Posted by Anonymous | November 24, 2009 12:50 PM

The crowd left after Death by Fire and Troubled was not played (as far as I know).

Posted by Anonymous | November 24, 2009 12:55 PM

that's nathan moore playing with the Slip; marco benevento is not a permanent member and didn't play with them saturday.

Posted by Anonymous | November 24, 2009 12:57 PM

Don't know a lot about this band but love the song "May You Never".

Posted by Tremags | November 24, 2009 1:00 PM

Show was the bees knees - Surprise Me. Mr Davis surprise me. I had seen the Slip before and knew what they were all about but they were f'n great. Land of Talk did not dissapoint, and the vocals were turned up. Give Me Back My Heart Attack gets me every time.

Posted by Anonymous | November 24, 2009 1:13 PM

These photos are lovely. I'm really upset I missed this show.

Posted by Anonymous | November 24, 2009 1:15 PM

Nathan said they would be back and Marco would be with them next time.

Posted by Anonymous | November 24, 2009 1:16 PM

no, they did not play troubled

Posted by Anonymous | November 24, 2009 1:24 PM

That first band Linfinity was wild, he seemed quite serious

Posted by Anonymous | November 24, 2009 1:27 PM

mike barrrrrron!!!!!

Posted by sk | November 24, 2009 1:36 PM

Is she hot? I can't tell from these photos.

Posted by Anonymous | November 24, 2009 1:52 PM

her shoulders lead you to think she could beat you up, but yeah, she's hot.

Posted by Anonymous | November 24, 2009 2:29 PM

the openers were all quite good. north highlands would be well served to take the mic away from that drummer, though.

Posted by Anonymous | November 24, 2009 3:19 PM

i think her shoulders are sexy. and she does have a adorable face.

Posted by Anonymous | November 24, 2009 6:37 PM

rt @sk mike barrrrrron!!!!!

Posted by kl | November 24, 2009 7:05 PM

I was glad when all the frat-rockers left after Surprise Me Mr. Davis finished.

Posted by Anonymous | November 25, 2009 12:58 AM

north highlands was horrific

Posted by Anonymous | November 25, 2009 7:55 AM

surprise me mr. davis filters the entirety of popular music into their thing...from the mills brothers to the drifters to the beatles to wilco. sublime.

Posted by Anonymous | November 25, 2009 8:53 AM

north highlands were solid. it was linfinity who did not belong in that lineup.

Posted by Anonymous | November 25, 2009 10:52 AM

great post! I wanna to know much more about it.
http://www.jumptags.com/tags/laserto/

Posted by Aaron | November 26, 2009 9:22 PM