Alexi Murdoch's live set at Schubas last Sunday reminds me why Schubas is my favorite venue ever. The venue is perfect for single performers with acoustic guitars. One of the most amazing performances I've ever seen there was Ray LaMontagne by himself right around the time Trouble came out. I hoped that Alexi Murdoch's set would have a similar vibe, and it did.

The first thing my roommate and I noticed upon arrival was the fact that tables were set up... an indication that tickets sales were subpar. This was kind of shocking considering the success of "Orange Sky." However Murdoch kept saying how impressed he was by the big crowd...the biggest of his US trip so far. Awww.... He kept wondering aloud where all the people came from. Someone from the crowd shouted "You're pretty good" in response. Muroch followed that up with "Gee, Thanks Man." Then I think he felt like that sounded to sarcastic or something and started talking about he never says stuff like "gee, thanks man" and he was trying it out.

He played a lot of great new songs from Time Without Consequence such as "All of My Days." At one point he asked for a guitar pic to play a song. Then he forgot what he was going to play in the first place. He scoffed at having a setlist though, saying that "preparation is the road to routine."

As good as the new songs were, highlights were from the 4 seasons EP. "Song For You," my personal favorite, was beautiful. I have never been as enamored by "Orange Sky" as everyone else, but hearing it live I finally understood how epic and wonderful the song is. Afterwards someone in the audience yelled out "Nick Drake loves you." When Alexi Murdoch responded "Where is he?" the person from the crowd yelled back "inside you."

During another conversation Murdoch let the f-bomb slip and then, concerned, asked if there were any young kids in the audience. A voice called out yes. Murdoch asked, "really." And the audience said "no." Murdoch joked around a bit and then said "but seriously, are there any young kids" and a voice responded "yes" but it was hard to figure out if the person was being serious or not. Eventually, Murdoch just said "Fuck It."

The final song before the encore was an unreleased song called "Something Beautiful" which Murdoch said people called his "Christian song." He then pondered on why people get weired out when they hear the word God in a song. He said he wasn't judging, but that he himself wasn't really Christian or a God person and sometimes he'll be singing the song and get weirded out singing about God and that he is just curious why it takes people back sometime. The song was encouraged as a sing along and at first it kind of struck me as a Christian youth groupesque sing along, but by the end it was spiritual in a different way...in the way where the spirituality didn't come so much from an outside source but instead from the celebration and joining that was present in the music and singing. It was pretty amazing and the crowd sang and clapped along perfectly. Hopefully, like Ray, Alexi's popularity will only grow.

Blue Mind