A Hawk And A Hacksaw were the main act at Crawdaddy on Sunday evening. Hailing from Albuquerque, New Mexico, this band is made up of a freshly-shaven Jeremy Barnes (accordian and percussion) and Heather Trost (violin). They were accompanied on the night by a guest musician, Krzysztof Hladowski (I think!), on bouzouki. As you may have guessed from that last instrument, the band is heavily influenced by traditional Balkan folk music, in much the same way that Beirut is. However, AHAAH are mostly instrumental, with only the occasional use of vocals to support their sound, rather than the other way around.
The show itself lasted an hour and a half and ending up with the musicians playing their encores from the middle of the floor, with the audience gathered around them in a circle. The whole thing was surprisingly intense, with the band scarcely breaking for pause between songs. One of the reasons for this was probably that the tempo was mostly in the mid-range and the lack of variation did make it a little heavy going around the hour mark. Another aspect is they are both quite static performers, so there is little by way of movement to distract the eye.
However, make no mistake, these are fine musicians at work and it was amazing to watch them play. Trost hardly put her playing arm down all evening and she produced a lovely quality of sound throughout. At the same time, Barnes’ right hand never ceased to race up and down the accordian keys, as he kept time. It was a very tight set.
There were several lively foot-tapping moments and even some dancing broke out at one point. This was great, as I feel that this sort of music requires the listener to clap, yelp and dance to it, rather than simply stand there in respectful silence. As Barnes said, in introducing one song, it comes in three parts. The first is meant to allow older people enjoy some time on the floor, the next is for couples to dance to, and the final part is intended for the young bucks to get up and show off their (dancing!) prowess to the ladies!
Anyway, rather than sending you off to stream their music elsewhere, here are a few novel videos that they made last year on the streets of Paris. I hope that you like them! If so, I particularly recommend their eight-track collaboration last year with The Hun-Hangar Ensemble. The album also features Zach Condon of Beirut on trumpet and mandolin. Oriental Hora, featured below, is taken from it.
Oriental Hora:
Fernando’s Giampari:
The Sparrow:
Filed under: Gigs, Music, Videos | Tagged: A Hawk And A Hacksaw, Beirut, The Hun-Hangar Ensemble
