Last Minute Plans: S. Carey And Tallest Man Stroll Into Town

By Lizz Kannenberg in Arts & Entertainment on Sep 22, 2010 7:40PM

When we got a tip from a friend that Pitchfork was live streaming their annual festival this year, the first set we caught from our desks was Dalarna, Sweden's Tallest Man on Earth. It was early on the Friday of the fest and the crowd looked a bit thin, but TMOE - known to his parents as Kristian Matsson - left nothing on the stage except the guts of his powerful performance. Those of us who never saw Dylan or Cobain in their primes were left with the impression that this guy understood what it meant to play a show.

The dude-with-a-guitar road is a tough one to successfully hoe these days, but Matsson's interpretation of the stark loneliness of his homeland and the things isolation makes one think about are given gurgling, struggling breath through the sheer will of performance. Matsson's guitar work is as haunting and evocative as his vocals and lyrics, and it's the one area where he may outshine folk legends he is clearly emulating.

But wait, wait - that's not all. Take a flier on the Park West tonight and you'll also be treated to the brokenheart sigh folk of Bon Iver collaborator S. Carey. A percussion specialist who joined up with Justin Vernon shortly after Bon Iver was expanded from a solo project into a band, Carey makes meticulously crafted, lushly layered compositions that are simultaneously complicated and sparse.

Tallest Man on Earth and S. Carey play tonight, September 22 at Park West, 322 W Armitage, 8:00 p.m., $17, 18+