Sun Kil Moon
Great American Music Hall - Feb 27, 2010
review by nikkiroddy

Everyone laughed when Mark Kozelek admitted to the audience at The Great American Music Hall on Saturday night that he had "just rolled out of bed for this". The front man of Sun Kill Moon and Red House Painters is a San Francisco local after all, and the idea that he stumbled out after a nap to play a Noise Pop Festival show is kind of cool, right? My only hang up was that it did sort of sound like...well, that he had just rolled out of bed.

There's no denying Kozelek's voice is incredible. Known for his slow, rich, melancholy howling, his vocals are even more intense and commanding live. Highlights of the show included his opening song, "Glenn Tipton", the lead track on Ghosts of the Great Highway, and a gentle, folksy cover of the Jackson 5's classic Motown hit, "I'll Be There".

Unfortunately, it took several frustrated, false starts for "I'll Be There" to get underway, eliciting applause and shout outs of "You can do it!" from the audience. Kozelek also forgot lyrics to multiple songs later on, indicating that trading that nap for some practice time might have made for a smoother show.

Kozelek spent the rest of the night entertaining the crowd with more obscure, dreamy songs, peppered with tracks from April, Sun Kill Moon's most recent studio album. The band's most mainstream song, "Carry Me, Ohio" was haunting live, and a personal highlight of the night for me. Overall, I would recommend catching Kozelek live to fans. The night was good. A little sleepy, but good.

posted Mar 10, 2010
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