Phosphorescent

 Phosphorescent at Spanish Moon 7/20/10

Phosphorescent’s new album, Here’s to Taking It Easy, is aptly titled. It is the least haunting of Matthew Houck’s work with the band since 2003. In fact much of the subject matter is straightforward, conventional, and dare I say lighthearted? Not entirely of course, Phosphorescent has an amazing high lonesome sound that chills. Although the difference between Pride (2007) and Here’s to Taking it Easy (2010) is noticeable, their live show was a great blend of their recent work and their older songs that made the crowd either sway dreamily or swing their hips and worship the God that is Country/Folk Rock. I’m a sucker for slide guitar.

Houck comes to put on a show. He looked like Bonnie Prince Billy’s cute drunk little brother. I don’t know about anyone else in there, but his cracking voice cracked my soul. He pushed emphasis on lyrics and did a whole lot of pointing. He did this thing a few times where he would grab the butt of his guitar and flip it down and just point up to the sky and sing, like Willie’s words were keeping him alive. His stage presence was mesmerizing. I watched some of the videos on their myspace before I went and he didn’t get as crazy as the “Lost Name” video, but he sure was fun to watch. He sat down on the edge of the stage next to a girl and sang Willie Nelson’s “It’s Not Supposed to be This Way” (…you’re supposed to know that I love you) while she turned beet red and he just loved it up.
The set list really delivered for me. “Nothing Was Stolen (Love Me Foolishly)” was the second song. “A Picture of Our Torn Up Praise” was fifth. They also played “It’s Hard to be Humble When You’re From Alabama” (after which he shouted GODAMMIT!), “Reasons to Quit”, “Too Sick to Pray”, “Los Angeles” and probably a few that I didn’t catch. They closed with the otherworldly “Wolves”.
It’s no wonder one of their 5 albums is a Willie Nelson tribute album titled To Willie (2009). Houck channeled Willie last night.