THE SILO GATHERING

Adam Pedersen, at various points, introduced us to the second guitar player, Mike, conga player Marcus and keyboardist, Kelly, and violinist,
Aaron. Both he and Mike only had acoustic guitars but rarely have I seen anyone make as good a use of them as they did. They all looked like they came out of a social circle of jocks from the suburbs but the music they played was unexpectedly excellent. Pedersen's vocals were gutsy, throaty and powerfully evocative. He seemed to have been listening to a lot of David Eugene Edwards music because he was surely aiming in that direction at least in terms of the sometimes unsettling power of his voice. Even more impressive was the layering of intricate guitar lines. Yeah, it was singer-songwriter music but most of those guys don't try hard enough to write great guitar parts that are excellent on their own to match good lyrics and an emotive vocal delivery. The band together reminded me of something Burt Bacharach might have done had he gone punk rock and then got tired of it but not of the emotional force of that kind of music and brought it back to something with more depth and nuance than most punk rock is capable of mustering.
Throughout the show Adam's voice reminded me of someone and by the end I realized he sounded a lot like Brendan Perry of Dead Can Dance. No one sounds like Brendan Perry...except for Adam Pedersen. Like all of the worthwhile singer-songwriter types of the last twenty years, Pedersen has clearly absorbed the lessons of Jeff Buckley's seething passion and dreamy soundscapes as well as the understated intensity and lyrical brilliance of Nick Drake. Hardly anyone pulls off falsettos well and Adam's use of that vocal trick was excellent. Like he wasn't even trying and it was just part of his personal reperatoire from years ago. His expansive voice was clearly the sound around which the rest of the music was built. More singer-songwriter people in Denver should check that guy out because he's a powerful and charismatic performer without having to beat you over the head with his own importance. They didn't have a name for this incarnation of the project but heck, they might as well stick with Adam Pedersen's name. I never saw or heard Silence in Contempt, sadly, but I wish I had in order to have a frame of reference. But I'll for sure be checking out Adam Pedersen's projects in the future. He's got that dark muse following him for sure.

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