Concert Review: M. Ward at Sixth and I

I’ll start by saying that I’ve never been disappointed walking out of an M. Ward show before, and this past Saturday’s disappointments were quite minor, so let's get them out of the way: Washington's historic Sixth and I synagogue can’t handle the reverberations put out by a rock band; and, Ward stopped well short of the venue’s 11:00 curfew. That said, Ward sounded great during the solo acoustic set that kicked off his performance, and he managed to pack 19 songs into barely 75 minutes (those who thought Leo Kottke talked too much might have appreciated Ward’s taciturn stage presence as much as his guitar chops).

Onward with the positive: Ward came to play, and his band rocked as cleanly as the venue’s echoing walls would let them. Ward began things with only his acoustic guitar and a harmonica, which he riffed on for a quick minute before leaning into the mic with a great lyric to open the show: “My heart is always on the line.” Not too long thereafter, he demonstrated his talent for rearranging classics by juxtaposing covers of Bowie’s “Let’s Dance” against Robert Wilkins’ “The Prodigal Son” without a hint of dissonance. That timeless spirit in Ward’s music was present throughout the night in tunes like Buddy Holly’s “Rave On,” She & Him’s “Change is Hard,” and Ward’s own gospel rocker, “To Save Me.” One after another, the songs stirred and blended like tea and honey.

Throughout the night, Ward’s understated guitar heroics were on full display, but were decidedly less understated on the set’s two instrumentals “Duet for Guitars #3” and “Bean Vine Blues #2,” the latter a blazing cover of Ward’s own guitar hero, the late John Fahey.

While not one to distract from his musicianship with banter, Ward still got a few laughs out of a jovial (if stoic) audience. Early on, perhaps sensing the absence of Rachel Blumberg behind the kit, Ward introduced his new drummer, saying, “I know what you're all wondering... you want to know who’s that on the drums.” (Turns out it was Scott McPherson, who ably stood in for the double drummers Ward toured with last time around.) Later, upon returning for an encore, Ward dedicated Daniel Johnston’s “Story of an Artist” to everyone who planned to stay home and watch the Oscars, an ostensible wisecrack whose ironic punchline was revealed only in the bittersweet tale of the song it introduced.

Finally, closing the concise show with the lively “Magic Trick,” Ward managed to end the night with another good bookending lyric, “…and that’s it!” Unfortunately, that was it. Here’s the well-chosen setlist:

Solo on guitar/harmonica:
1 Fuel for Fire
2 One Hundred Million Years
3 The Prodigal Son
4 Let's Dance
5 Duet for Guitars #3
6 Lullaby + Exile (w/ Mike Coykendall whistling)

Full band:
7 Epistemology
8 Chinese Translation
9 Fisher of men
10 Bean Vine Blues #2
11 Post-War
12 Poison Cup
13 Undertaker
14 Rave On
15 Change is Hard
16 Never Had Nobody Like You
17 To Save Me

Encore:
18 Story of an Artist (solo on piano)
19 Magic Trick (w/ full band)

Aslo, I should mention the ceiling there is really cool: