A review of a show in Vancouver from the fall of 2006. This appeared in "Discorder".
Whether or not I ever wanted to visit the Holy Land, on Friday November 10th at the St. James Community Hall, I was taken there anyhow. Sitting in a church pew surrounded by an audience of music purists, half of whom looked like religious prophets or new hippies (I couldn't decide), I was first mesmerized by the opening band from Baltimore, Human Bell. They reminded me that God knows how important acoustics are. Their first song was reminiscent of Tubular Bells, but without the bells. Instead, an electric guitar and a double-armed electric guitar made the crowd sit up and listen. These two very talented musicians have already been added to my list of favorites. They began with intense energy, played, ironically, with an eerie calmness that slowly built to a chorus of frenetic guitar strumming held back for an instant before reaching a powerful climax. Tingling and exciting. That was followed by a song that blasted me back to the 70s and reminded me of the George Harrison and Ravi Shankar union, without the hash and chillum. Their music reached a place deep inside of me, that produced a gut-wrenching pain intensified by the melodic, crisp, clear sounds of the trumpet. Then, like a haunting, soft thunder, drums were added to produce deep, sensual and erotic feelings, and a need to connect with another human being. This team of Nathan Bell and Dave Heumann were a perfect lead-up to Bonnie "Prince" Billy and his morbid lyrics.
K. Bourne