Review: Vic Chesnutt @ Somerville Theater

In general, when I arrive at a show and learn that I am walking in on an opening act that I was not aware of - I'm not very pleased. I had a timeline in my head of what I thought set times were going to be and realized that now, all of a sudden, every thing had been pushed back an hour. Sunday night however, it only took about five minutes for me to realize that I was going to be catching a great set of music from Clare & The Reasons, a band I had never heard of - in fact I did not know the name of the group until after their set was over and I swung by the merch table. Clare & The Reasons touring band are a quartet, fronted by Clare Manchon and all four musicians are multi-instrumentalists. There was fiddle, trombone, clarinet, keyboards, guitars and basses constantly being passed around amongst all the members of the band, and while there was no percussionist...Clare had a foot-tambourine setup that added a little extra punch in the choruses of some songs. They played the majority of their brand new album Arrow including the first-ever performance of the "Japanese Bonus Track". As her set came to a close, Manchon announced that "You will all know this song" and launched into a great arrangement of That's All (which is also on the album Arrow). With the signature piano line being played on a clarinet, the crowd - of unfortunately only dozens of people - let out an audible laugh and Clare quickly explained, "It's not funny" into the microphone. This band is opening for Vic Chesnutt through November 7th, I highly recommend arriving early to check them out. Manchon's gentle voice is a perfect fit for their type of music which borders somewhere between Twee Pop and gypsy street musicians. As my friend Indie Dan said, "Even though there wasn't an accordion onstage, I totally could see them having one." Here is their music video for the song All The Wine: READ ON for more from Dave including a review of Vic Chesnutt's new band and to see the hilarious infomercial for Clare & The Reasons New Album...