Vetiver
XOYO, London
29/06/2011

On record, folksters Vetiver are a quiet bunch, given to gentle melodies and whispered breathy vocals. Live? Imagine 60s troubadour Harry Nilssen – albeit a Harry Nilssen given to gurning like Tom Waits circa ‘Bone Machine’ – scooped up by a giant Monty Pythonesque hand from some San Franciscan hippy bedsit, where he was chatting with Paul McCartney and Richard Brautigan, and plonked down, after a short jump through time, as the frontman for that most sunshine-y of sunshine pop bands, The Pernice Brothers. The ensuing mash-up would prepare you in no small way for the experience of seeing Vetiver.

The sun has been blazing down on London all day, with Vetiver themselves soaking it up in the hours before the gig – The Fly passes them all stood outside one of the area’s many ultra-hip watering holes earlier in the evening. And once they are safely ensconced within the lugubrious basement of the XOYO, the band obviously channel all of that Vitamin D into an electric set that comprises tunes from the new album, ‘The Errant Charm’, such as the slow burning ‘It’s Beyond Me’ and the choppy Rickenbackertastic ‘Wonder Why’, alongside such seasoned crowd favourites as ‘Sister’ and ‘Everyday’ from 2009’s ‘Tight Fit’ and ‘Maureen’ and ‘Won’t Be Me’ from 2006’s ‘To Find Me Gone’. Along the way, they also find time to drop in a sweet cover of the old Go-Betweens classic, ‘Streets Of Our Town’.

In an age where music journalists can’t fall over themselves fast enough to praise every utterance from the likes of Fleet Foxes or Bon Iver, it continues to surprise that a band as good as Vetiver go largely unrecognised and unrewarded – but that may be partly to do with what the band commit to record. Like American Music Club before them, Vetiver rarely manage to convey what they can do on stage in the studio environment. Live, however, they are a truly stunning proposition.

Peter Wild