Jenny Dalton at Bryant Lake Bowl on 7/27/07

By: Pat O'Brien

Jenny Dalton - Photo by Nathan Levine

There was a disturbing video playing on the screen in the Bryant-Lake Bowl Theater as I entered. I thought I might have stumbled into the end of an earlier something that ran a bit late, but I recognized the lyrics, the voice.

Jenny Dalton had been remixed. Hugo Varvoglis, a Grecian producer/DJ had remixed four of Dalton’s piano-centric, delicate, altogether feminine songs into blurting, bubbling, scathing dance floor-worthy anthems. The videos to go along with them looked like those weirdo flashback scenes in The House On Haunted Hill where the people moved too fast and too slow at the same time, it was a little creepy. The music took on this confrontational element that fit surprisingly well with the lyrics. Dalton has a remix album on the way titled Carbon Lily, that contains these remixed songs and a few others, it definitely sounded promising.

The whole night seemed haunted like that. Dalton bathed in white light for much of the night, her six-piece backing band saying little and playing with every fiber of their beings while hardly breaking a sweat so it seemed. It played out like a three-act play.

The songs on her debut album, Fleur De Lily, which consisted largely of only Dalton and her piano made a seamless transition to being performed with a full band—Peter Aslandis on guitar, Jacob Louwsma on bass, drummer Paul Mathis, and Stephanie and Lucas Shogren playing vaguely funereal violin and cello respectively. The songs were well thought out during the transformation to a full band as well—there were sudden cymbal flourishes, clever notes from the violin at just the right time and you could almost feel the sold out crowd falling a little bit more in love with Dalton as the set progressed.

The band took a break and local artist El Perdito—barefoot, with his newsboy hat pulled low—hopped up on stage to paint on the backside of a large sheet of acetate, while a now solo Dalton played a quieter, relaxed solo set. It seemed at this point, she was only a soundtrack for El Perdito to create. He painted black lines along the bottom at first, creating what appeared to be a large field and I was reminded of Andrew Wyeth’s Christina’s World for a moment but the painting quickly morphed as the songs progressed. It became, among other things, an alien landscape and a street scene before finally becoming four or five Bob Ross-like (in a good way) large bushes hiding the tops of street lamps. The finality of it didn’t seem to be the point, however. Like the night was shaping up to be, it’s point seemed to be that art in any form can change how it’s being perceived, deconstructed and reshaped and still be relevant to it’s audience. Now, the obvious comparison to Cloud Cult is bound to pop up but this wasn’t like Cloud Cult at all, it was far less frenetic and didn’t seem to have the “art for art’s sake” ethos behind it. Or maybe this was all just for fun and I read entirely too much into it.

Jenny Dalton - Photo by Nathan Levine

It should be noted here that at this point ninety minutes had passed in what felt like fifteen. The audience was held in rapt attention, it seemed as though nobody was even breathing, they were transfixed on the stage. The “Third Act” started with Dalton bringing the full band out to play about six more songs and then something happened that when I saw it unfold, seemed really sweet, but suspected, once out of the room, I would find calculated and crass.

The show ended and the band was not even three steps down the back stairs to the basement when they turned around to start the encore. Usually, I dislike this. Most of the time if a band returns before five minutes have passed, I make a snide comment about it. But not this time. The room was positively roaring, clapping, hooting, along with some other forms of primitive communication. The theater is small, so it sounded like a jet engine passing overhead. If I had been her, I later decided, I wouldn’t have even made it down the first step before I sat back down at the piano. Dalton showed some real restraint.

Location Info: Bryant Lake Bowl
Artist Info: Jenny Dalton

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