Elin Palmer’s CD release show at the Hi-Dive on Friday felt more like a goodbye party. Photos by Brian Carney.
Just as is hitting her stride and taking her first solid steps on her solo career, the longtime Denver scene stalwart has decided to leave. On what promises to be a long, winding journey back to her native Sweden (according to a recent), Palmer is headed to Nashville, and then Brooklyn. The Denver scene won’t be the same once she’s gone and takes her sparse, gorgeous arrangements with her.
While last Saturday’s show was originally setup to celebrate the release of Palmer’s first solo CD, “Postcard,” these circumstances cast a sort of pall over it that made it seem more like a goodbye party than a debut.
Palmer was joined onstage by usual cohorts Tiffany Meese on keyboards, Kim Cole on drums and Charles Mertens on bass for a relatively short, 45-minute set in front of a too-sparse crowd for such a talented group of performers. They started off with the title song from the new record, a catchy tune that truly epitomizes Palmer’s musical abilities with an almost pastoral, Beatles-esque simplicity. She led the band on one of her favorite instruments, the nyckelharpa, one of many she played throughout the show including the guitar and accordion.
The band performed songs that Palmer sang in both English and Swedish, including “Du,” which featured a guest violinist, “A Little House” and a superb cover of Buddy Holly’s “Every Day.” As small as the crowd was — by the time Palmer and the band took the stage there were no more than 75 people in the Hi-Dive — their appreciation for her compositions was palpable. After about 40 minutes and some eight songs, the band left the stage, but was coaxed back only to admit that they had no more tunes prepared.
Thankfully, they were not against playing the first two songs on their playlist again, and the audience were overjoyed to hear them.
Norwegian solo artist provided a set of quirky techno-pop before Palmer’s set. Her music recalled soundtrack music that accompanies Japanese animation with quick beats and wild, almost Kate Bush-type vocals and synthesizers.
While she was accompanied onstage by another performer, she seemed to fit better in the guise of a one-man (or one-woman) band, as she set her synthesizer to sequence, and then ran around in front of it with the energy of a group of cheerleaders to scream super-treacled melodies. On her first-ever world tour, Sissy Wish had little trouble winning over the small audience after just a few tunes, and had the whole venue bouncing by the time they left the stage.
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Billy Thieme is a Denver-based writer, an old-school punk and a huge follower of Denver’s vibrant local music scene. Follow Billy’s explorations at , and his giglist at .
is a Denver photographer and a regular contributor to Reverb.
