I never know quite what to expect from a Boulder show. This time, at the show at the Wednesday evening, I did not expect to see a crowd that truly put the “age” back in “all ages.” Glancing at the sea of gray ponytails, cozy shawls, and ergonomic chair cushions toted from home, I felt worlds away from the 16-and-up shows I frequent in Denver.
But as Peyroux’s set began, I started to understand the appeal she held with the more mature crowd. Madeleine’s style deviates little from the most standard of jazz standards, an approach that is both technically admirable and, well, a little dull.
Peyroux and her band started off the night with “The Kind You Can’t Afford,” a bubbly little ditty about love being free. Backed by a trumpet, keys, drummer, upright bassist and guitarist, Peyroux’s voice soared, trilled and whined over a pitch-perfect jazz foundation. When she covered Bob Dylan’s “You’re Gonna Make Me Lonesome When You Go,” I reached the startling conclusion that Bob Dylan’s voice had its definite Billie Holiday moments. The sound at the Boulder Theater was spot-on and the crowd, though seated and unnervingly sedate throughout the set, was obviously content.
But where Peyroux falls ever-so-slightly short with her dead-on vintage sound and ability to move through genres like jazz and Latin-tinged blues is just that: her dedication to faithful representation. Unlike Nellie McKaye, whose renditions of Doris Day’s sound are tempered with wry wit and feminist sensibilities, Peyroux is more of a musical archivist. Her versions of old songs and her retro original work are great, but lack that winking irony, that snappy, topical context.
Closing out the set at around 10:30 p.m. with “Instead,” (described as the “happy song”) and the briefest of encores, Peyroux and the band took a group bow. It seemed a perfectly old-school way to end a very old-school show. But there is a danger in being too old-school: without the occasional nod to the present, it runs the risk of sounding just… old.
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Cassandra Schoon is a Denver freelance writer and regular Reverb contributor.
Joshua Elioseff is a Boulder-based freelance photographer and regular Reverb contributor. Check out his .
