SFist Reviews: Iron & Wine @ Swedish American Hall

by Moses Namkung

Damn, last night's show was delicious.

Iron & Wine's mini-tour plugging the release of Around the Well, an album of b-sides and home recordings, was "designed to let fans have a shot at a more intimate setting with the band (that's why the venues are so tiny)", according to a rep from Sub Pop. Fans voted on the band's website to select the set list which included a wide range of material from new tunes not released on any album ("Mary Anne") to excellent covers ("Waitin' for a Superman").

Last night, the stage was bare, save for a chair, a mic and Sam Beam and his acoustic guitar. No backing band. Beam chatted it up with the audience all night; after playing "Flightless Bird, American Mouth", featured on the Twilight soundtrack, he mentioned that the previous night in Seattle somebody "asked me what my favorite book was... darn, I should've said Twilight" (his actual answer was East of Eden). And when some audience members began calling out requests, some boorishly fan shouted "Freebird". So Beam indulged him with a pretty stanza. "Generations later, nobody will know who Skynyrd was", Beam said, "but they'll know it's fun to shout Freebird at shows, and not know why."

Some have knocked Iron & Wine for being less than entertaining. Odds are that's because they saw them in some huge cavernous warehouse where sound goes to die or at like, Lollapalooza. But jeez. Would you have wanted to see Elliott Smith at Madison Square Garden? So, intimate venue, foldout chairs and a quiet, respectful audience of no more than a few hundred... no better way to see Iron & Wine.

They will be playing a free show today at Aquarius Records. Note: although they are playing at Swedish again tonight, don't buy anything off craigslist for tonight's show. There are no hard tickets issued and the purchaser must present ID at the door to get in.