Shearwater at The Horseshoe Tavern - Concert Pictures

On St. Patrick's Day, March 17, I got to see Shearwater perform at The Legendary Horseshoe Tavern for the second time. The first time was almost exactly two years ago to the day and it was an early show in my concert photography adventure. Take a peek at my pics from that show.

When I saw Shearwater back then, I remarked on the beauty of their sound and songs. This time, I enjoyed the added noise and heaviness that they developed. The band sounded more intense and they took more time to jam on their tunes. I loved it.

They also got into the seasonal spirit, asking the crowd if anyone would like to buy them a whiskey. If I recall correctly, Jonathan Meiburg told us that he would play with more gusto and less precision with the addition of whiskey, just so we were clear. Well, the Toronto crowd chose their option with an equal amount of gusto as somewhere around 10 whiskeys appeared on stage from various angles.

Shearwater took to the stage with "Prime" from their new album Jet Plane and Oxbow. Jonathan had a cool glove with a light in the palm, which made for a unique and compelling visual to start the show with. They proceeded with a set that was heavy on tunes from the new album along with tunes from Animal Joy, Rook, and Palo Santo.

We heard stories about Jonathan's previous visits to The Horseshoe, the galactic equivalents of the distance they've travelled on the road in the past decade, and the traumatic nature of some of Jonathan's recent non-tour travels, from which he sought therapy in David Bowie's Lodger. While Shearwater didn't treat us to the full album run-down of Lodger, they did play three songs from it for the encore. We heard "D.J.", "Yassassin" and "Look Back In Anger". Fantastic. The band came back for a second encore, too, finishing up the night with "I Was A Cloud".

Give a listen to some tunes from their setlist:

"Quiet Americans" from Jet Plane and Oxbow

"You As You Were" from Animal Joy

"I Was a Cloud" from Rook

New music from Shearwater Quiet Americans from Jet Plane and Oxbow

I really enjoyed seeing Shearwater live and photographic them for this site. It's been quite a while since they released an new album. About a month ago, they announced that their new album called Jet Plane and Oxbow coming out on January 22 and they let us hear the track "Quiet Americans". I just gave it a spin and I like what I hear. It's got all the heavy drama and exquisite melody that we look for from Shearwater.

A night of beauty with Shearwater at The Horseshoe

I keep thinking of one word to describe the night of music I experienced last Thursday, March 27 at The Horseshoe with Shearwater, Death Vessels and Jesca Hoop. Beautiful. The music was full of beauty.

I'm a big fan of powerful, energetic songs. The more delicate songs that Shearwater spread throughout their set did add a dynamic to the set that made the powerful songs all the more powerful and the delicate songs all the more delicate. And beautiful.

I love the story behind their latest album, Fellow Travelers. It's an album of covers of tunes by bands that they've toured with. It includes guest spots by many of these bands. The only rule was that a given musician couldn't play on his/her own tune. I think it's a cool concept both because it allows Shearwater to pay tribute to the gifted musicians they've shared stages with, and certainly have a great time in the studio with them, but it does it in a unique way. I can't wait to spend more time with the album. I wish they'd done St. Vincent's "Cheerleader" at the Toronto show.

Skip down and play Shearwater's version of Xiu Xiu's "I Luv The Valley OH!". It rocks in the best possible way. Definitely a show highlight. You can check out the rest of Fellow Travelers over at NPR.

They played a magnificent and, yes, beautiful set. Here are my favourites from the show. I went in unfamiliar with a lot of Shearwater's body of work. I came out a fan.

Show opener "Hidden Lakes" from 2010's The Golden Archipelago

"Animal Life" from their 2012 release Animal Joy

"Breaking the Yearlings" from Animal Joy

The immaculate rocker "Immaculate" from Animal Joy

Certainly a show highlight, "I Luv The Valley OH!" originally by Xiu Xiu, from Shearwater's latest Fellow Travelers

Main set closer "You As You Were" from Animal Joy

One of the encore tunes, "Castaways" from The Golden Archipelago

They then closed out with an energetic cover of Roxy Music's "Virginia Plain" and sent us on our way into the dark, dark night.