Nadamucho.com review of Chop Suey gig

Paul Stinson of Nadamucho.com has kindly sent us the following review of the bands recent Chop Suey gig.

11/2 Mojave 3 @ Chop Suey, Seattle

After surviving a sound-check of nearly arctic proportions, early November saw
Mojave 3 return to the Seattle stage with little visible or audible rust to show
from the band’s two-year hiatus. As the room warmed up with the arrival of a solid
Monday-night turnout, the seven-piece ensemble from Great Britain wrapped up the
crowd in a spacey but not oversold ambiance of heartfelt songs.

“Got to find a way to get home strong/got to find a way back home,” began Neil
Halstead, singing the opening lines of ‘Bluebird of Happiness,’ the first track off
Spoon and Rafter, the band’s first album in three years. With travel and tour,
notions of home can be a funny and fleeting thing, said Halstead who along with the
rest of his bandmates had flown in the night before from Minneapolis. Halstead hit
Seattle twice last year in support of his debut solo album, Sleeping on Roads,
estimates he’s spent only two months out of the last two years in his native
Cornwall, England.

The stage, plane and van, however, are very familiar furniture to the 4AD band that
is beginning their second decade together. “I suppose the road does feel like home
at times. You start to miss it if you’re away from it long enough,” said Halstead,
confessing that thoughts of tourism can give way to essentials such as laundry.
A more familiar sight with a 6-stringed Takamine around his neck or with a shoe
inches away from an effects pedal, the first twenty minutes saw a comfortable
Halstead negotiating the keyboards as if they -and not the guitar- had been his
first instrument at age 11.

Building upon the band’s established ability to develop vocal and sonic hooks,
Mojave 3 proved that it was still interested in growing as ‘Starlite #1’ and ‘Bill
Oddity’ employed new wrinkles, including smatterings of glockenspiel and eerie
electronic effects, which live translate into an up-beat yet harrowing sense of
longing.

While dipping across the spectrum of their catalog, the band leaned heavily on its
sophomore release, Out of Tune, playing half of the album including the notable
‘Give What You Take,’ and ‘Baby’s Coming Home.’ As crowd requests mounted to hear
something from bassist Rachel Goswell, the night’s quietest moment arrived with Tell
Me Tomorrow’s ‘Sarah’. According to the soon-to-be solo artist, Mojave 3 fans can
expect to see an EP from Goswell in January, followed by a full-length release in
March.

As the evening drew to a close, Halstead opened up the floor to requests, launching
into “In Love with a View,” a poignant narrative climaxing with Simon Rowe’s
achingly cathartic guitar solo, unleashing a flood of melody as if the band had
behind a dam, waiting for its sonic voice to burst in every direction, evoking a
sense of emotion as powerful and memorable as any songwriter’s best line. Mojave 3
is scheduled for a return visit to Seattle in late winter as part of a nationwide
tour.