The Handsome Family - Live Rotterdam, Netherlands 2002

The Handsome Family - Live at Nighttown
May 9, 2002
Rotterdam, Netherlands
Soundboard @320

Taped by: Jan de Bever
Transferred by: Michiel Oudendijk

EXCELLENT RECORDING!

Husband-and-wife duo the Handsome Family have been labeled both alt-country and traditionalist, but truthfully their often dark music lies in a unique space somewhere in between, blending the sounds of traditional country and bluegrass (and, especially, murder ballads) into a more modern scenery. Vocalist and composer Brett Sparks hails from Texas, where he studied music and briefly worked around the oil rigs. By the mid-'90s, he resided in Chicago with his wife Rennie Sparks, a fiction writer originally from Long Island. Brett persuaded Rennie to write lyrics for him, leading to the unusual and striking form of the Handsome Family's songs -- evocative scenes and brief tales (of both the daydream and ghost-story varieties) in lieu of the standard verse-chorus-verse structure.


The Handsome Family's debut album, entitled Odessa, was released in January 1995 on the independent label Carrot Top. This first home recording (all of the Handsome Family's albums are recorded in their living room) had slight punk shadings not heard on their subsequent albums. Odessa unfortunately made few waves except for some radio stations' ban on the second song, "Arlene," which is about a woman who gets bludgeoned to death. The follow-up came in May of the following year, and the Handsome Family hit the road in support of their new release, Milk and Scissors, first touring the U.S. with Wilco, then heading on to Europe for shows in Austria, Germany, and Switzerland. With Milk and Scissors, the duo had traded in their previous rock edges for more traditional country sounds. The resulting album won praise from the critics, got named in the Top Ten of 1996 by alt-country/Americana magazine No Depression, and was featured on John Peel's BBC show. ~MORE at All Music

 

 

Set List:

So Much Wine

Arlene

A Dark Eye

#1 Country Song

Weightless Again

Down In The Ground

Don't Be Scared

No One Fell Asleep Alone

A Beautiful Thing

So Long

When That Helicopter Comes

The Giant Of Illinois

Peace In The Valley Again

In The Air

The Sad Milkman

My Sister's Tiny Hands

All The TVs In Town

Encore: Cathedrals

I Know You Are There

 

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