Concert Review: Jolie Holland and Herman Dune at the Jackpot

Jolie Holland and Herman Dune

Better Than: 500 mg of Doxycycline.

By GRANT SNIDER

To paraphrase Adam Duritz, poet laureate of ‘90s Top 40 Radio, I want to meet a girl who looks like Elvis. As Jolie Holland sings, one side of her upper lip curls into a King-like sneer you’d swear was lifted from a Graceland shrine. With no hip swiveling to speak of, Holland’s facial contortions carry the emotional weight of her melancholic songs.

Decorated for Halloween, the Jackpot’s stage was a mass of gauzy spiderwebs backlit in red and blue. The décor mirrored Holland’s music – songs that evoke a dimly lit saloon of yore, covered by years of dust and death. Her solo albums have explored the early incarnations of folk, Rhythm & Blues, and Country & Western through the privileged view of a modern singer-songwriter. Touring to support The Living and the Dead, she employed a full band: a bassist, a lead guitarist, and drummer Rachel Blumberg, who must be tired of being billed as “formerly of the Decemberists.”

More after the jump.