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Concert Tue Feb 20 2007
The Forest for the Trees
Despite the small and insular nature of the Baltimore indie music scene, guitarist Dave Heumann sports an extensive cee-vee. He formerly provided backing guitar in Will Oldham's band, in Papa M, and for Cass McCombs. He's also played in a boatload of hometown outfits. Lately he's been most active as frontman for Arbouretum, whose second album, Rites of Uncovering, was recently released on Thrill Jockey. The album offers an evocative and ruminative journey. Dusky at the edges, its mood is often as hard to nail down as a waking dream scattered amidst knotty roots and ground fog. Musically, the whole thing's steeped in an early 70s folk-rock sensibility, with echoes of 'Skip' Spence's Oar drifting throughout. Admittedly, on the shorter numbers the band sounds a little overly mannered and hemmed in. They're at their strongest, however, when they allow themselves room to stretch out. Things coalesce and tension builds when the rhythm section lay down a low-timbred murmur, a bedrock from which Heumann strikes out with improv-ish soloing that builds and back-steps and ambivalently courts resolution. They'll be playing at the Empty Bottle Thursday night. Mason Proper and the Portland duo 2% Majesty open. The show starts at 9:30 PM, admission is eight bucks flat.
