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David Kilgour keeps to himself at one side of the stage.
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To say that David Kilgour is a cult hero is a bit of an understatement. The fact is, you can pretty much divide the world into two camps regarding Mr. Kilgour: those who look at you funny and say "David who?" and those who sigh, dream like, and say "my idol..." Well, perhaps that's overstating the point a bit, but a little hyperbole never hurt anyone, did it? Anyway, for those reading this who are in the first camp, a little background is in order. Kilgour, with his brother Hamish and Robert Scott, make up the absolutely seminal New Zealand rock band The Clean. In the nearly 25 years they've been making music together, they've produced exactly four -- count 'em, four -- full length records (hell, they'd been together for over ten years before they put out their first LP, 1990's brilliant Vehicle), and a handful of EPs. While they're not exactly the most prolific buggers on the planet, the records that they have produced over the years have been seemingly effortless, glistening pop gems, which are every bit as good as their fans proclaim them to be. Considering the band's rather lackluster release schedule, it only makes sense that all three members are involved in other projects. Robert Scott has been recording with his other band, The Bats, since the early '80s; Hamish Kilgour heads up The Mad Scene, and David, in addition to recording under such varied monikers as Stephen and The Great Unwashed, has put out four solo records. His latest, A Feather In The Engine is simultaneously the prettiest and the most sparse thing he's ever done -- simple, droning, ambient pop songs that burrow their way into the folds of your cranium without you really noticing.
The crowd at the Croc was a bit sparser than I expected at first, but once Kilgour and his backing band (comprised of four lucky members of tour-mates Lambchop) took the stage, I looked behind me to see that the band room was relatively full, with 75 to 100 people present. Kilgour's set was, in a word, perfect. Although he focused on songs from Feather, he also threw in a few tracks from earlier solo efforts, such as "Seemingly Stranded" from 1997's awesome David Kilgour and the Heavy Eights disc. Much to the delight of several audience members, myself included, Kilgour also deigned to pull out some treats from his 20-year-old bag of Clean tricks, including the classics "Getting Older" and "Billy Two", as well as the newer "Golden Crown" (from this year's Getaway). This was most definitely the next best thing to seeing the Clean perform these gems live. The fellows from Lambchop must be commended as well -- given the fact that they were basically functioning as a pick-up band for Kilgour, and hadn't had a great deal of time to rehearse the material before going on the road (which was attested to by the fact that near the end of every song, Kilgour would invariably turn toward the drummer and give "the nod", indicating that the song was about to end), they filled the bill admirably, with no noticeable screwups, save an organ that was far too loud in the mix for a few songs. Kilgour himself seemed utterly in his element -- completely comfortable on the guitar and at the mic, despite his green band. Although he wasn't particularly talkative during his set, he seemed quite amiable, and was definitely appreciative of the enthusiastic crowd.
Due to the rapturous response of the crowd at the end of the set, Kilgour and c. were actually coaxed back on stage for an encore. How often does the opening band get called back for an encore? Then again, how often is the opening act David Kilgour? At any rate, although I wasn't familiar with the song they played, it was a delicious, open-tuned, extended psychedelic-type thing, which, like the best of Kilgour's material, more closely resembled a moving body of water than a song. Although it was not nearly enough (personally, I would have loved to hear a few tunes from his fabulous Sugar Mouth record), this is what we had to settle for -- a little less than an hour's worth of perfect music from one of indie rock's elder statesmen. Can't really complain about that.
Article and photos by Jeremy Schneyer
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