To call Joshua Tillman’s career unusual is something of an understatement. A former drummer for Fleet Foxes and an accomplished solo musician, he left that group, loaded his van with mushrooms and took a trip down the California coast, a hazy exodus that resulted in the birth of his current performing alter-ego Father John Misty. Luckily for us, that strange journey resulted in one gorgeous album, and now a global tour that made its stop at Lincoln Hall on October 30.
It should come as no surprise that Tillman’s band resembles the Muppet’s Electric Mayhem, all bleached dreadlocks and sunglasses that are most likely vintage. Despite their somewhat loud appearance, though, the band stayed mostly quiet throughout the night, leaving the stage banter to the instrument-free Tillman. He more than lived up to the challenge, going on drawling sidebars between songs, every word as perfectly scripted and drily erudite as his lyrics.
“I see one masked face coming out of the fog,” he said at one point, noticing a concert-goer in a Halloween costume. “This is how I always knew death would come to me. Masked, in the fog. Take me. It’s my time.”
When that same wry, detached voice opens up in song, it’s startling. His voice has the polish of aged wood, or maybe oak-aged bourbon is a better comparison – there’s roughness there. Tillman sounds remarkably flawless live, and his wonderfully bonkers lyrics come through even clearer on stage:
“I ran down the road/pants down to my knees/screaming “Please come help me, that Canadian shaman gave a little too much to me/and I’m writing a novel/because it’s never been done before.”
Considering how patently strange the lyrics are, it’s slightly astonishing that the album has cultivated such a passionate following. Lincoln Hall was stuffed to the gills with enthusiastic attendees of all ages, spanning the spectrum of standard twenty-something hipsters to subdued-looking professionals. We were sandwiched between a particularly lively group who shrieked along to every number, and a guy dressed as MacGruber.
The set highlight was definitely “Hollywood Forever Cemetary Sings,” a strangely infectious mid-tempo jam filled with gravestone imagery and a relentlessly driving beat.
Even with the wonderfully witty banter, the concert was over far too soon – Father John Misty, after all, has only released one album. Tillman and his guitarist (who Tillman said had a “lusty” speaking voice) did return for a quiet number, and the rest of the band came out for one last song before everyone said goodnight.
MacGruber seemed to approve.
Father John Misty's debut album "Fear Fun" is out now on Sub Pop.
