Calexico Still Threading the Needle

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At this point, Calexico playing the Mercy Lounge in the months following an album release couldn’t feel less coincidental. In my 11 Nashville years, Calexico has played the lounge four times. Not that I blame them. It’s a far cry from the concert halls they play abroad but I prefer the small setting. Their music does well in the intimate, attic-like space.

On this Tuesday, the crowd stayed small and mostly free of concert jerks. The crowd might have peaked at 150, but might have been closer to 100. At least it was a respectful bunch with very few Lord and Lady Douchebag types. Ryley Walker opened with a set of minimal, sometimes formless noise rock. Given the scarcity of notes in the droning but percussive set, it was hard to believe there were four people on stage. One of them was Pat Sansone, Wilco’s multi-instrumentalist.

They barely exited the stage before Calexico singer-guitarist Joey Burns emerged, tuning guitars and testing gear like a man possessed. Calexico delivered a taut set that approached two hours. They pulled heavily from The Thread That Keeps Us, their latest album. I’m not a huge fan of the songs that veer too far from their signature sound, as they tend to lock into a groove of mid-tempo indie rock. If the music lacks any trace of Southwestern feel, it might as well not be Calexico. Not everything they do needs to sound like it comes from a spaghetti western soundtrack, yet that’s what they’ve always done best.

Burns and drummer John Convertino are the band’s only permanent members but minus the celebrity guests, the touring band is almost identical to the album players. The only local guest was harmonica player Micky Raphael, who joined the band for several songs. Early in the set, they snuck in Quattro (World Drifts In), a live staple from Feast of Wire, along with a few other tracks from their early records. The first two tracks of Thread – End of the World with You and Voices in the Field – deliver a formidable one-two punch. The band recognized this and paired them together in the set.

The band took fresh turns whenever multi-instrumentalist Jairo Zavala took the microphone. He highlighted Cumbia de Donde, a danceable tune driven by the squeaks of an early-model synthesizer. It fit well with Flores y Tamales from Thread. Also riveting were the tightly spun Under the Wheels and Another Space, tracks that could fit comfortably on any Calexico album.

The show didn’t always go smoothly. When Burns strummed his nylon guitar, the body sounds as if it were made from cardboard, producing a rough, buzzing noise. Burns knew what happened - rain. The band played Memphis’ Beale Street Music Festival during a rainstorm, ruining several effects pedals and as it turned out, Burn’s nylon-string. He borrowed one from another band member as they drifted into Music Box. Later in the show, when he thanked the crowd for their patience, everyone knew why.

As bands mature and discographies grow long, albums become forgotten. Calexico never touched Garden Ruin or Carried to Dust, while only pulling a few tracks from Edge of the Sun and Algiers, both from the past five years. This show would succeed or fail with Thread tracks, and mostly it succeeded. Even numbers that I’m not fond of like Girl in the Forest or Music Box fit the among the more Latin-tinged efforts.

Thankfully the encore leaned hard the band’s instrumental chops and toward obscurities. Accompanied only by Raphael, Burns lead a stark acoustic take on Fortune Teller, a hard-edges song from Algiers. Then the night turned into the jam always percolating in a Calexico show. They detoured to a true rarity - Rosco y Pancetta, an instrumental from the Edge of the Sun bonus disc. Named for the two dogs at the Mexico City studio where they recorded that album, the instrumental boosted the festive nature of the encore.

Some familiar strums and arpeggios gave away the next track, of which I will never tire. Alone Again Or has become the band’s signature cover, and no other band is as well-suited to the horn interludes sharpening the classic song by Love. Another cover followed, one that Burns labeled as his favorite song. – Corona by the Minutemen. The bright and sunny track breezes by, and could have been culled from any Calexico album. It struck me as interesting that two of the six songs from the Convict Pool EP made the encore. Not that I minded.

The night concluded with Guero Canelo, a live favorite from Feast of Wire that the band stretched out with solo jams, band introductions and a little bantering from Burns. That is what comes from being a longtime fan. A new album will always get star billing in the setlist. The set might skip Crystal Frontier or Minus de Cobre, and we can hope they return next time. But a blistering encore goes a long way toward elevating a decent set from an old favorite.

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