The Arts Center Carrboro, NC
Contact: elizabethmoen.mgmt@gmail.com
Web: elizabethmoen.com
Players: Elizabeth Moen, guitars, vocals; Jack Brereton, drums; Augustus Martini, bass; Tristan Huygen, guitar
Elizabeth Moen put ashiny object in the room, wrapped it around a few soft and disarming songs... and then clobbered the sparse but attentive audience with a rock-the-block upper cut. Zing! Zap! Pow!
If you were crawling around Wrigleyville or down on South State Street around Reggie’s Rock Room or Schuba’s Tavern in Lakeview, you’ve probably run into Moen, or heard her voice cutting through the Chicago night air. And now she’s brought her Windy City Walkabout vibe to Carrboro, opening her set at The Arts Center with “Fields of Fire” and swinging effortlessly into “Skyline.”
Her trio kept pace as she called the tunes and, without any strong soloists in the ensemble, the set was clearly going to be a study in restraint: a slow- motion-audio burn with occasional flashes of sonic brilliance and very lyrical, when you could hear the words clearly, song craft. It was set off with unexpected chord changes and delightfully odd progressions.
“Love Song,” "Heaven,” and “Not Enough” opened into the heart of the set and although well played and well executed, the presentation seemed oddly wooden and in search of a soul, despite the warm reception from the small but enthusiastic audience. Starting out in Chicago, the vibrant and competitive music scene there seems to have given Miss Moen an array of show skills and an ability to manage her audience. As the show rolled on, “Not Enough” and “Renaissance Man” brought the show to an arc, an audio climax, that found the energy which seemed to have wandered off during the sound check, grabbed a pizza around the corner, got a coffee in South Beach and came back on the red-eye.
The Trio behind Miss Moen was reserved and held the throttle close to the stick, keeping tight control on the pacing and the energy coming off the stage. Augustus Martin was in full command of the lower register on this night and added excellent backing vocals to all of Moen’s intriguing material. He was off to the side on this big stage, yet he was providing so much of the groove!
On the other side, the guitar was almost positioned as an afterthought—although Tristan Huygen was competent enough, it wasn’t clear whether the road-burn of a challenging schedule left him uninspired or he was lost in the tour bus trajectory of the last nickel of shows. No matter, he pulled it all off.
