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Matthew E White played Baby's All Right with Wilsen and Karima Walker (pics, setlist)

photos by PSquared

Matthew E White @ Baby’s All Right 4/6/2015

How can you recreate this attitude for highly-orchestrated music live on stage in a small venue like Baby’s All Right, which isn’t exactly Carnegie Hall? You probably can’t, and wisely, White doesn’t try – his show is a clever bait and switch. Accompanied by a fiery, pliable three-piece band, featuring Alan Parker on lead guitar, Pinson Chanselle Jr. on drums and Cameron Ralston on bass, White revamped his tunes, rendering them earthy and raw, less studied. The group took the stage to Curtis Mayfield’s “Billy Jack,” a deep, sprawling groove from 1975, which gives you an idea of their mindset.

This doesn’t mean that White entirely remade his sound in performance: He maintained the signature aspect of his vocal delivery. His voice is low, wide and whispery; he spilled out over the music like Serge Gainsbourg, guttural, raspy, even slightly creepy at times. It takes courage to step up to a microphone – a tool for making yourself loud – and ooze rather than belt.

But there’s no syrup in the live arrangements: White and his band, nearing the end of a month-long tour, came hurtling at the audience, muscular and tightly coordinated. They opened the set with “Take Care My Baby,” which is the closest White gets to pure R&B on record. In performance, the waterfalls of dueling guitar verged on the downtown art-rock of Television, and the pummeling surges of bass leaned towards reggae. – [Diffuser]

Matthew E White‘s tour swung through NYC on Monday (4/6) for a sold-out show at Baby’s All Right. While he didn’t have the full-orchestra that was there for his BRIC House record release show, he and his very solid band delivered straight-ahead versions of Fresh Blood‘s tracks and other songs. Pictures and setlist are in this post.

Opening the night were his tourmates Wilsen, and Karima Walker. In the front room at Baby’s that night, Okkervil River’s Will Sheff was the DJ for the evening. Pictures from their sets, and more of White’s, below…

Karima Walker

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Wilsen

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Matthew E. White

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Will Sheff and Michael Azerrad

Matthew E. White

SETLIST: Matthew E. White @ Baby’s All Right 4/6/2015
Take Care My Baby
Love Is Deep
Big Love
Fruit Trees
One of These Days
Feeling Good Is Good Enough
Rock & Roll Is Cold
Steady Pace
Will You Love Me
Vision