Jeremy Enigk at The Troubadour

I had the amazing opportunity to see Jeremy Enigk at The Troubadour in West Hollywood on Friday night. It’s the second time I’ve seen him perform — the first time as a solo project — and just like the time before, he did not disappoint. I have said it before, but I still think that Jeremy Enigk is one of the greatest songwriters of my generation, and it pains me that he is not being played everywhere. His voice is both rough and subtle, restrained yet over the top and unchained. His latest solo release, World Waits, is one of my favorite albums of 2006 and one of my favorite albums of all time. At the risk of sounding like a fan-boy, it’s just a breath-taking piece of music work. It picks up right where The Fire Theft left off with their freshman release and builds on his soundtrack work of The United States of Leland. Jeremy and his perfectly talented band played for over an hour — 2 songs from Leland, roughly 4 from Return of the Frog Queen, and if my memory serves me correctly, 7 from World Waits. The show started with a complete rendition of the World Waits opening track “A New Beginning.” And although just over a minute long, it was the most perfect opening of a show I have ever seen. It set the mood of the remainder of the show beautifully.

I rarely see an opening band that I like, and of those that I like there is rarely an opening band that I fall in love with. The last time I remember falling in love with a band was about 2 years ago when I saw Mellowdrone open for… The Fire Theft. Jeremy, once again, brought a band into The Troubadour that blew me away. Imaad Wasif & The Two-Part Beast blew me out of the water. A three-person band compossed of simply a guitarist, bassist and drummer. As simple as it was, their music was captivating. Their music was such a rich change in comparison to everything else that I have heard released in this last year. Imaad’s vocals follow in a similar line as Enigk’s. They bordered on grating yet stayed one step away and contained a haunting amount of feeling and passion. He never missed a note and his guitar was never a step behind. Imaad was one of the most captivating guitarists I have seen on stage in a very long time. He has a gift and talent and I hope he plays for a very long time. If you can imagine Cedric from The Mars Volta and Aaron from mewithoutYou being one person you have a strong visual grasp on who Imaad Wasif is.

If you don’t count The Bend (who was horrendous — the “fat guy” from Blues Travelers in front of 4 emo Seattle kids), the first band in the line-up, then you have a perfect show and a great night out on Santa Monica Boulevard.