Live music listings: December 2006

Doors 7.30
SOLD OUT
NO DOOR SALES, NO RETURNS

Damien Jurado is a storyteller, effortlessly weaving textured vocals around clean lines and dark contenplative subject matter. His dreamscapes and love songs are perfect, and his timeless folk-inspired American pop is a breath of fresh air.
He has recorded prolifically over these last nine years, turning out ten albums [four on the hugely influential Sub Pop, including the indie-masterpiece 'Ghost of David'] and almost as many EPs.
Damien often makes use of found sound and field recording techniques, and has experimented with different forms of tape recordings [he released a collection of found audio letters, 'Postcards and Audio Letters', in 2000].
There comes a time in every artist's career when he disconnects himself from the public. Fans, friends, critics... they'll all be left behind in the creative process; maybe for only a spell, maybe forevermore. When that break happens, it's both liberating and terrifying. With his new album on Secretly Canadian - 'On My Way To Absence' - Damien Jurado has made such a break. He hung up the phone and left it lying there on the counter, and in the process has created a quintessential Jurado piece of work; a masterpiece by one of today's most incredible voices.

Main support is Devastations who tell "tales of lonely, dark nights good enough to send fans of The National and Tindersticks reaching gleefully for the bourbon and grandpa's revolver." [**** Uncut]. And according to Plan B, "There's more to 'Coal' then just string-laden serenades. It's called passion. It means brilliance."

J Tillman, just signed to Fargo Records, is up first.