Bill Callahan at Bottom Lounge, 6/19/2009

Photo by Kirstie Shanley

This show happened awhile ago, but it’s worth talking about, so now that I’ve got this blog up I’m going to talk about it. Bill Callahan is an indie singer-songwriter, and in my view is one of the most underrated musicians of his generation. Callahan writes songs that are simple but intelligent, and often incredibly moving, both lyrically and musically, and it’s all carried by his voice; his sing-speak style baritone is the anchor of his music.

Callahan recorded for many years under the alias Smog, dropping that name in favor of his own in 2007. He began his career making experimental lo-fi; his first full length, 1990’s Sewn to the Sky, and other early recordings are dissonant, staticky, and abrasive. His music has changed greatly since then; his later recordings are of higher sound quality, and are more melodically and harmonically developed than his early experiments. And while his lyrics have always been complex and important to his music, they’ve become progressively less cryptic as the years have gone on.

I saw him at the Bottom Lounge, a venue I feel like is suited more to a metal show, but the sound in the room is pretty good, and I was near the front, so I can’t complain. He was backed by a fantastic band, consisting of a cellist, violinist, drummer, and electric guitarist; Callahan sang, and on most songs played electric guitar as well. Predictably, he played tracks primarily from his latest LP, Sometimes I Wish We Were an Eagle. There were certainly some Smog songs mixed in (“Bathysphere” and “Let Me See the Colts” were highlights, as was his classic “Cold Blooded Old Times”), and while I would have liked to have heard a bit more from his Smog catalog, it’s hard to nitpick because Sometimes I Wish We Were an Eagle is such a good album, and he and his band played such fantastic versions of its songs, particularly the brooding “All Thoughts Are Prey to Some Beast,” perhaps the hardest-rocking moment of the night. Callahan is not necessarily known for being a hard rocker, but make no mistake: this band was kicking ass and taking names. Callahan’s songs, without losing their subtlety and precision, were given a harder edge than they possess on record; there was a certain underlying drive beneath it all. And this, I think, is what made the show so exciting; a performance consisting entirely of Callahan’s songs played exactly as they were played on record would have made for a very good concert, but this band pushed a little further. Hell yeah, Bill.