The warm ambiance provided by Mississippi Studios, which acts like an elegant living room rather than a theater, is the perfect setting for a Charlotte Martin performance. The stunningly beautiful Martin, in her second Portland performance seemed excited, if not slightly overanxious, to make the eager audience feel as at home as the venue does. Martin, an up-and-coming pop singer with a well-disguised dark side, managed to do just that on this Sunday night as she turned in a rather talkative--Storytellers-esque—solo performance highlighted by her haunting voice and inspired keyboard playing.
The stage, off to the corner where one might more ordinarily expect a davenport and reading lamp, perhaps an old world piano, was graced by the presence of a few other talented musicians before Martin appeared. Opening the show was Andrew Paul Woodworth whose songs were met with proper respect by the filtering crowd. His set was highlighted by the rather laidback approach to the Beastie Boys classic “Fight For Your Right,” a funny song indeed in this context as half the small capacity crowd sung in unison; imagine your family singing “your mom threw away your best porno mag” during this year’s carolling session around the fire. The sandwich act was Chris Pierce, who, like Charlotte Martin, remains in relative obscurity despite the success of his song “Are You Beautiful,” which is on the recent Crash (Sandra Bullock, Don Cheadle) soundtrack and was featured in a series of Banana Republic advertisements. Pierce’s smooth Ben Harper like vocal style comes in waves of delicate force and tranquil beauty. I think Pierce proved to most in the audience that he is a performer on the way up yet to touch the success that seems likely headed his direction.
Martin took the stage to an anticipatory crowd and opened with the opening track from her only full-length LP, the title track, “On Your Shore.” On the next tune, “Limits of Our Love,” Martin paused mid-song to explain that she has forgotten her own lyrics. A decidedly embarrassed Martin resumed eventually where she had left off and finished admirably. From then on she seemed to gather confidence and her songs began to carry more and more power as she continued to push the envelope. “Veins,” the title track off her brand new EP, was played complete with a prerecorded drum beat, akin to monkeys banging on pots and pans with various kitchen utensils, but the monkeys have rhythm and Martin’s voice glues the chaotic feel into a surprisingly good, cohesive, industrial pop song.
Other set highlights were “Every Time it Rains,” the uplifting number many Portlanders can relate to, “Four Walls,” complete with a hip-hop beat on a Red Bull binge, and “Your Armor,” a tender ballad showcasing Martin’s ability to inject emotion into anybody willing to listen. She encored with the Pearl Jam classic “Elderly Woman Behind the Counter in a Small Town.” This served as a proper melancholy ending to a good show and a good second showing in Portland for Charlotte Martin, who I continue to claim is the best pop singer not yet in the public eye or on the cover of Rolling Stone.
