Handsome Family
Review of their gig in Whelan's, 8th May 2001
The Handsome Family are one bulk slice of authentic, loony-toon Americana. With authentic American voices: Brett's deep-barreled tones oddballing Jim Reeves, and Rennie, when heard singing lead which is seldom, making a strange, nasal caterwaul - Applepie Mom on acid, turned nasty 'Down in The Ground'.
Southern-fried
country weirded up some. Skewed lyrical pokes at Regular Joe: a kid burns
creatures with a magnifying lens 'at the age of ten'; a million birds
inhabit the heart when love comes knocking and everyone is just trying to become
'weightless again'. Auto-harp, melodica, harmonica, guitars and, on one
song, a washboard. And that infernal Minidisc player becoming the focus of lazy
Texan frustration, misbehaving as such machinery tends to do in live
performance. Setbacks are laughingly dealt with though, and we get to further
witness the Sparks' (no, their name is not really 'Handsome') marital
kook-harmony - Rennie telling us offbeat girlhood stories and Brett
good-naturedly grumbling at the machine, in his very John Goodman way. They all
but squabble between songs but it's exactly this full-on, extroverted colour
of all-American, 'awh shucks' neurotic insecurity that makes the Handsome
Family so engaging.
They manage to squeeze in two encores, the second of which sees Brett follow on from his solo starter, straight into another song before Rennie has time to join him for the melodica intro, so she rolls up her eyes and slouches about in the background, making us laugh. Endearingly homey and savagely weird, this is country with a hidden indie heart. By her own admission, all Rennie wants to do is go back to their hotel room and watch TV because 'TV is so relaxing'. But at the end of the day we just want the Handsome pair to be our friends, come to our houses, sit on our porches, drink our wine, eat our food? and hopefully not murder our pet rabbits!
Carol Keogh
Check out a review of
the Handsome Family supporting the Pernice Brothers
back in 1999
