Pitchfork

While Sigur Rós campaign for majesty and beauty with fairytale tongue in wide open spaces, Amiina fight the war against ugly musics from the homefront. Their precise, delicate compositions have a hearth-warmed, parlor-spun charm, and while they threatened to lull the inattentive into slumber at last Friday's show at the Lakeshore Theater, folks with an ear for nuance and controlled grace likely found much to delight over.

While best known as Sigur Rós' string quartet, the ladies only assumed quartet formation twice, maybe three times-- and once for an all-saw encore! More often they bounded restlessly from instrument to instrument, each leading the fragile charge for a song or so on everything from mandolin and Irish harp to keyboards, laptops, and even a makeshift armonica comprised of a row of crystal wine glasses.

As for opener Tom Brosseau-- can this guy really exist? Awkward aw-shucks bumpkin Brosseau, far as I could tell, wasn't putting on an act. He really was slipping up because he had "ants in his pants," as he put it. And he really did try to convince the governor of his home state, North Dakota, to write the liner notes for his album-- by impersonating Bob Hope's bit in Spies Like Us. So Tom's between-song story went. In all, Brosseau's banter made a more favorable and lasting impression than his vaguely-quirky, blue-eyed folk tunes, but both suited the evening's no-frills fireside vibe.

Amiina's U.S. tour continues through April.

AMIINA












TOM BROSSEAU




Amiina:

03-26 Detroit, MI - Magic Bag ^
03-27 Toronto, Ontario - Rivoli ^
03-28 Montreal, Quebec - Le National ^
03-30 Philadelphia, PA - World Cafe Live ^
03-31 Boston, MA - The Remis Museum of Fine Arts ^
04-01 Washington, DC - 9:30 Club ^
04-02 New York, NY - Good Shepherd Faith Church
04-05 Cincinnati, OH - Memorial Hall (MusicNow Festival) *
04-06 Cincinnati, OH - Memorial Hall (MusicNow Festival) #
04-09 Seattle, WA - Triple Door
04-10 Portland, OR - Doug Fir Lounge
04-12 San Francisco, CA - Swedish American Hall
04-13 Los Angeles, CA - Silent Movie Theatre
04-14 San Diego, CA - House of Blues (5th Avenue Stage)

^ with Tom Brosseau
* with Pedro Soler, David Cossin, Bryce Dessner, Padma Newsome with Clogs
# with My Brightest Diamond