I'm almost not quite sure how to begin recounting last night's show at the Fremont Abbey {Round #83, with Damien Jurado, The Head and the Heart's Jonathan Russell, and members of Pretty Broken things, two painters, and a poet} in a way that conveys it with proper justice. So far as layperson's terms go, it was just a show: two forty-five minute sets on a stage, three lead singers trading off turns, with active art creation on the side and yes, even the poetry was good. But when you take two powerful frontmen and put them in such an intimate setting — you're bound to win big. And I think I can speak for the entire sold-out room when I say that everybody won last night.

Between getting to see Damien Jurado's work showcased at such a tangible, stripped-away scale {both through selections from Maraqopa and long-standing favorites like "Sheets"} and Jonathan Russell's raw-yet-polished abandon {several new-to-me songs, a Bill Withers cover, and an incredible closing number about getting postcards you don't want that's been rattling in my brain since The Head and the Heart's Easy Street set last year}, we were taken on a collective journey through the soundscape that engaged both the audience and the other members on stage in a way you just don't see at a one-band-at-a-time rehearsed show. Such is the beauty of seeing performers in the round.

The stage was rounded out beautifully — and towards the end of the night, almost show-stealing-ly — by members of Pretty Broken Things, who will be doing a full-band opening set for tomorrow's Sons of Warren Oates show at Columbia City Theater, if you're looking for more of what they've got. Damien Jurado leaves this week for a west coast tour {dates here} and you can keep up on all things Head and the Heart on their website here.

{Photos by Victoria VanBruinisse.}