Artist Profile & Live Review: Page France

Yes, I'm aware that I'm the last blogger on earth to give Page France the copious praise they deserve. And yes, I'm also aware that it's not like I'm two weeks behind the curve on this one, it's more that I'm actually like a year or so behind. However, I'm clinging to the hope that at least there's one of you out there who hasn't been thoroughly convinced to give Page France a listen, and that I may be able to change your mind. Also, I saw them perform tonight at the Satellite Ballroom at UVA, so this will serve as both a live review and an artist profile.

Like most people, I downloaded and loved "Chariot" back when it was still the toast of the blogs, but for some unfathomable reason I neglected to seek out the rest of their material until recently when I came across a used copy of Come, I'm A Lion at Plan 9 Music and decided to pick it up. Best call ever. This album, along with Hello, Dear Wind which I also acquired recently, is incredible, and I've honestly not been able to listen to anything else since. At this point I still prefer Lion to Wind, but that's just a matter of the amount of time I've spent obsessing over "Bridge" and the other immaculate tracks on their 2004 debut. Michael Nau's songwriting is simplistic and strikingly emotional, and Whitney McGraw's backing vocals take the song's to a whole new level of stunning beauty.

Pear France are often compared to Sufjan Stevens due to their use of unconventional instruments like the banjo and glockenspiel, as well as the Christian symbolism that recurs throughout their songs, but I personally think that the similarity of Nau's vocals to those of Ben Gibbard absolutely cannot be ignored. Particularly, the "double-sided frame" chorus on "We Remain As Two" is unmistakeably Gibbard-esque, and sounds IDENTICAL to the Death Cab frontman (go here to download "We Remain As Two" and see for yourself). As for the recurring Christian symbolism, Nau counters: "The 'Christian band' inquiry wears me out, to be honest. As for the Christian symbols in my writing — sometimes I don’t even realise that they exist until someone points them out to me. There’s really no reason; it just rolled out that way." Regardless of the subject matter, Nau has a penchant for crafting beautiful and emotional songs, though there's a large stylistic jump between 2004's Lion and 2005's Wind.

Most of the songs on Come, I'm A Lion seem to be centered around relationships and evoke comparisons to a much more acoustic and stripped down Death Cab, especially due to the Gibbard-esque vocals. However, on Hello, Dear Wind the songs seem to move away from relationships to a broader range of subjects, and Nau's voice seems to evolve as well, and he sounds much more like a Jeff Mangum/Colin Meloy-type, especially in a live setting, which brings me to my review of their show.

The band took the stage promptly at 9 PM tonight to negligible fanfare and a crowd of maybe five people, but fortunately more began to filter in and move towards the stage as soon as the group commenced their performance. As a live band, Page France are great, though certainly with ample room for improvement, as is expected for such a young group. Singer Michael Nau does a good job of engaging the crowd despite their unfamiliarity with the group, and his voice, as well as the songs, held up wonderfully live. "Chariot", as expected, was the pinnacle and highlight of their set, sounding more intense than ever with awesome percussion courtesy of drummer Clinton Jones and a new verse of lyrics from Nau. But to my utter dismay, their setlist featured not a single song from Come, I'm A Lion, leaving me crestfallen and on the verge of a tantrum (not really, I stopped throwing tantrums at least two years ago). Afterwards, I asked the lovely Whitney, who I kind of have a crush on now, what the reason for this was, and she apologized and explained that they require "more people" to play. I let her know that "Bridge" was one of my favorite songs of the last few years, and she apologized again and agreed that it was one of her favorites as well, and I told her I'd try to make their May 25th show in NYC and hoped they'd play it then. Below is their full setlist, culled entirely from Hello, Dear Wind and their two 2006 EPs, Pear and Sister Pinecone (both of which I picked up at the show).

Setlist:
1. "Junkyard"
2. "Jesus"
3. "Talking Out-Louds"
4. "Dogs"
5. "Chariot" [highly recommended]
6. "Elephant"
7. ??? (probably from one of the new EPs)
8. "Antarctica (My Beloved Home)"
9. "Windy"

More importantly though, below are my favorite songs from their debut, Come, I'm A Lion. "Bridge" is my absolute favorite song by them, and I was legitimately crushed that they didn't play it tonight. Whitney McGraw's back-up vocals are in their finest form here, Nau delivers his most emotional vocals and lyrics on this track, and the most moving part of the entire album comes at the 2:08 mark when the instrumentation fades out and Nau delivers the "I'm stable, so you want me, yeah I'm stable, so you want me" line. While pretty much the entire album is incredible, my other favorites are "So Sweetly" and "Ribs", which you can also grab below.

MP3s:
"Bridge" - Page France [highly recommended]
"Ribs" - Page France
"So Sweetly Around Me" - Page France

John Vanderslice was the headliner for this show, so check the post above this for the review of his set (to be posted sometime later this afternoon).