Calexico/Iron & Wine

Calexico and Iron & Wine performed a marathon live show Saturday, October 15th at Tucson's Rialto Theatre opening a tour in support of their joint EP release In The Reins. I arrived in time to hear Calexico finish their set with a swelling crescendo which ran several minutes and that sounded not unlike some of Wilco's noisier moments. Fortunately, Calexico would be back onstage throughout the evening.

Iron & Wine took the stage next. Sam Beam, the bearded singer/songwriter from Florida who essentially is Iron & Wine, performed alternately in the following manners: solo with acoustic guitar, duo with __, and in various combinations of with the drummer, bassist, and vibraphonist from Calexico. He sang "Bird Stealing Bread" and "Southern Anthem" from his first album, The Creek Drank the Cradle, but mostly concentrated on songs from his sophomore effort, Our Endless Numbered Days. The Rialto was packed for this performance: a sweaty mass of UA students and local music fans made the air humid and hot. Iron & Wine singing solo and finger-picking an acoustic guitar is not the stuff of loud rock n' roll myth, but the large audience was respectful and attentive for the most part, save for conversation toward the rear of the auditorium and the occasional yelp, presumably when a concertgoers' enthusiasm (understandably) got the better of their sense of decorum.

In a unique Tucson touch, local performer Salvadore Duran took the stage by himself after Iron & Wine's set. Duran, a middle-aged Hispanic man with wavy black hair and the ease of a natural performer, wore a guitar, a harmonica, and clogs, and proceeded to win the crowd with a forceful one-man-band performance: strumming and stomping through four or five epic tunes, sung in Spanish with sporadic barnyard noises. He was rewarded with well-deserved applause and demand for an encore, after which he remained onstage to sing his part in the song "He Lays In The Reins" from the two groups' In The Reins EP.

By now the show had been going on for almost three hours, but the climax was worth the wait. The combined eleven musicians of Calexico and Iron & Wine swarmed out under the stage's muted blue and orange lighting. The collaborative songs (written and sung mostly by Beam, but with plenty of western flourishes and context from Calexico) came alive through the work of the ensemble's three guitarists, bassist, vibraphonist, trumpeter, harmonica player, harmony singer, and keyboardist. In addition to tracks from the joint EP, they performed three covers: "All Tomorrow's Parties" by the Velvet Underground, "Wild Horses" by The Rolling Stones, and The Drifters' "Save The Last Dance For Me" during the encore. The latter hinted at the limits of this collaboration, as the slowed tempo and Beam's characteristic languorous singing didn't improve on the sprightly doo-wop of the original. But overall the performance combined the strengths of Beam's songwriting with Calexico's unique "mariachi death band" sound for a satisfying start to what should be an excellent tour.