Quiet House Show at Velour

Let’s talk about Quiet House. They opened for Damien Jurado this week as a part of Velour’s 10th anniversary celebration.

It’s rare to see a band with four stringed instruments in a small venue like Velour. Rarer still do you get the pleasure of a tight outfit whose songs could be described as “new-Appalachia meets string ensemble meets quasi-gospel (at times).” [1]

Lead singer, Stuart Wheeler, packs what sounds like at least a couple of octaves of vocal range, what looks like a 3/4-sized Martin guitar, and a confident clawhammer picking style. How he manages to pour as much emotion as he does into a song while pulling off enough shoe-gazing to make an early-90s My Bloody Valentine jealous is a mystery to me.

Shout out to my good friend, Pat Campbell, who pulled double duty on the drums for a couple of Timmy the Teeth’s songs and the entire Quite House set.

The album is great but you really have to see these guys and gals live to fully appreciate the two violins, viola, and cello. So, so good.

Check out “Steady + Sure” below and enjoy the pics. See you at the next show.

[1] I just noticed on their Facebook page that they bill themselves as “Chamber Folk,” (a term I suspect they coined) so I’m no too far off.