I was very distracted at this concert. Distracted by camera problems. I showed up, camera in hand, all ready to take photos. And then, as opening act Corrina Repp began to sing, I realized my lens was malfuctioning. The same lens I’d had fixed three weeks earlier was, once again, refusing to focus. Argh. Back to the repair shop with that one.
Anyway… I was not really in a good state of mind after that to review the performances by Repp or the next of the opening acts, For All the Sweet Children. Both seemed OK to me.
Norfolk & Western finally pulled me out of my funk. This is a really nice band, with some excellent interplay between the instruments. And when Rachel Blumberg (also heard in the Decemberists and backing M. Ward) gets into a frenetic patch of drumming, the music takes on a power that I haven’t noticed in the studio recordings. She’s something else.