The past met the future Thursday at the snug Mercury Lounge, where Iron & Wine songwriter-frontman Sam Beam brewed a musical gumbo that embraced the heart and soul of rock icons ranging from The Band and the Allman Brothers to the Grateful Dead.
This super-crowded “secret” show was a warm-up gig for the band’s Radio City Music Hall debut Jan. 29. In the 10-song program, Beam led his seven backing musicians through nearly all of their upcoming record, “Kiss Each Other Clean,” along with a couple of fan favorites. Although it was an abbreviated set, the music showcased the band’s knack for quiet, folkie story-songs, anthems powered on soaring slide guitar licks and heady jazz-rock jam skills.
In a set that never faltered, Iron & Wine killed when it let loose on the freshly minted “Monkeys Uptown,” propelled on a crowd-churning syncopated bass and drum line.
Bushy-bearded Beam is an appealing frontman. His humor is self-effacing.
For instance, he switched early in the show from an acoustic six-string to a Gibson electric — for “Big Burned Hand” — but he couldn’t tease a sound out of his ax when he strummed. He gave up on that tune red-faced and flipped back to an acoustic guitar for another song, telling the crowd, “Four records in, and I don’t know how to turn on this guitar.”
Later in the show, he got his electric guitar to crank, and delivered “Hand,” which turned out to be a concert highlight of raucous funk ‘n’ roll with a terrific Little Feat vibe.
Although Beam is the center of this group, the music is always a band effort. That was easily heard when he made vocal harmonies with backup singer Rosie Thomas on the gorgeous lullaby “Godless Brother in Love.”
This tiny show — maybe one of the last club dates Iron & Wine will ever play — was important because it was a snapshot of a band on the cusp of greatness, ready to take its place among musical elite present and past.