Saturday Night (Part I): Moriarty

For reasons I will explain later - see Saturday Night ( Part II)  - I found myself in Beauvais on saturday night at a venue called L'Ouvre-Boîte for a double-bill concert closing the Blues autour du Zinc festival. The opener that night was a band I'd never heard of called Moriarty. While the name surprised me a little, I nonetheless expected a local blues cover band as is usually the case in small festivals.

As the lights went down, the musicians entered. Double-Bass, drums, harmonica, acoustic guitar, electric guitar, and vocals (female). Sounds familiar? Well, it turns out you can do something very different from blues with that instrumentation. I don't know how these guys ended up programmed at a blues festival, but I don't mind one bit, quite the contrary. That night I discovered a superb band with a real personality and a world of their own.

Describing the soundscape of Moriarty is not easy. There's a large chunk of folk/americana, but it's infused with a dark romantic streak that's clearly a product of the rock era. At times, I was reminded strongly of 16 Horsepower, without the heavy edge. The sparseness of the instrumentation brought to mind an acoutic brand of Treat Her Right (their MySpace page says they have Bostonian roots, so who knows ?). The occasional, mild crazyness reminded me of Weill and Brecht. I don't know if any of these are conscious influences, but if you these references speak to you, you're likely to fall into Moriarty's world head first.

Clearly, nothing about this band is about instrumental prowess. And yet, they are all excellent musicians, capable of supporting their magnificent singer(s) in subtle yet very effective ways. I have been subjected to so much upfront harmonica in the last ten years that I'm always pleasantly surprised by bands that use harmonica for it's percussive or atmospheric sound rather than the in-your-face thing. And it made the one or two solo outings of the harp player all the more efficient (as on Motel). Similarly, the guitarists laid intricate, mostly picked, lines underneath the singing, with few discreet but exploratory solos on electric guitar or dobro.

The singer, Rosemary, has a very distinctive voice, powerful and high, very old fashioned, and it works perfectly with the dusty look of their stage props and the romantic, often melancholy lyrics. Listen to Private Lily below to see what I mean. Her delivery and stage presence were really great too. Moriarty know that they have a slightly wacky musical world, but they're amazing at drawing you in...

Another thing that impressed (and delighted) me was their mastery of the overall sound. Arrangements are not always as simple as they seem at first, and there's a lot happening in the background, but it's all well under control. Not unlike 16 Horsepower, they like to use odd instruments occasionally, such as a harmonium or a toy metallophone.

In fact, they did one thing which I have never seen live and wich I thought was superb: at one point in the concert they put a non-directional mic on a stand at the front of the stage, and the whole band huddled around it and played a few tunes "acoustically". The feeling was amazing, and it conveyed a proximity that was very beauitiful to experience.

I don't know if the audience came specifically for Moriarty, since they seem to be getting some traction in France right now, but regardless, the audience enjoyed the concert greatly and a ot of them seemed to know Moriarty's current single Jimmy, or at least learn the lyrics real fast. I for one enjoyed myself thoroughly, even more than usual as I was stumbling on a band I'd never heard and really dig...

So much was I impressed with them that I went to the local record store at lunch today and got hold of their recently released first CD Gee Whiz but this is a Lonesome Town. I'm listening to it as we speak and while the feeling is by necessity different and not as intense as the live thing, the music is just as wonderful.

There are quite a few videos of Moriarty on Youtube, if you want to get a feel for their sound. Here's Private Lily that sounds much like what I saw on Saturday night.

If you want to see my photos (inadequate as they are) of the show and the follow-up, they are available here.

Comments

[Greg Zlap]

Oui! Thomas, l'harmoniciste de Moriarty, est mon ancien élève. J'adore leur CD, je trouve qu'il fait un travail remarquable à l'harmonica. Il arrive à créer un éventail d'ambiances impressionnant, toujours avec goût et discrétion, en utilisant plein de ressources : accordages mineurs, diatonique / chromatique, son saturé / son clair, aigus /graves... Excellent! Une belle voix que celle de Rosmary et un univers cohérent. Bravo!

[Greg]

They sound really good. I am really digging the Resonator guitar very nice. It seems they're exclusive to France though so I don't Imagine they'll be coming down to California.

[Benoit Felten]

Greg,

They might, they just might.

First of all, it seems that more than a few of them are Euro/US nationals or Euro nationals with US origins. Their CD is for sale on amazon.com which means they have US distribution.

I might meet up with them for some interviews and chats in a couple of weeks, so if I do i'll ask them about any US plans !