somewhat of a disappointment: laura marling at joe's pub. she did not show up for mike and eric. saki and julie, it was okay you missed this one. i was hoping the change of venue would make last night's show better than the previous gig i saw at bowery. she AGAIN played a short set under an hour.
however, laura does know how to charm a crowd with a self-introduction of "hi i'm laura and i'm going to play some songs for you." she interweaved oldies with new tunes from her forthcoming second album. she did address the fact that it's a bit ugh when you have to sit through new tunes you aren't familiar with, expecting to hear the stuff you know. laura, you are very thoughtful. from her first album, she played "ghosts," "blackberry stone," and "my manic and i". of the new tunes i could decipher, she did play "no hope in the air" and "rambling man". i really liked that later. the encore was her explaining how it's weird to retire behind a curtain five feet from the stage. she remained on stage and plucked through two more tunes. she didn't play my fav "alas i cannot swim". :(
i do think laura is a great artist with thoughtful, original lyrics set against gentle acoustic chords. the video below produced by mtv (didn't know she was on their radar) illustrates the pure simplistic goodness of ms. marling. just wish she would play longer sets. sigh!
