By Girindra Selleck
The enormous but rarely noticed neo-Gothic chandeliers hanging from the ceiling of the IMU Main Lounge looked as though they could have been part of Iron & Wine’s set on Wednesday, but they weren’t. The glass of red wine glistening playfully on the barstool next to the microphone and three guitars, however, was.
People outfitted in denim, tartan shirts, and mid-century work boots packed the room. Men and women alike wore their hair in buns. It was a microcosm of indie-music culture in 2015.
The night’s tornado sirens had been quiet for a few hours, but the ground was still wet; the expected standing crowd of 1,800 had been downsized to a seated crowd of just over 600.
A cheer rang out. Then another. Soon the entire room bursting into applause as a bearded man sporting a supple green velvet shawl-collared blazer made his way onto stage.
Sam Beam, better known under the moniker of his folk-rock outfit Iron & Wine, picked up the first guitar and greeted the crowd but took a moment before setting his capo and beginning to play.
“What do you guys want to hear?” Beam asked.
The crowd was silent for a moment, unsure if Beam was serious or just asking rhetorically. Then someone yelled out, “’Boy with a Coin.”
“Yeah, that’s a good one, let’s do that,” Beam responded, beginning to play.
This was to be the format (or un-format, rather) for the rest of the evening. Only once did Beam play a song not requested by the crowd.
Check out a slideshow of the concert here
Beam, whose music is experiencing a bit of an international renaissance (at the time of this show, it had only been a few hours since he had returned from a tour in Spain and Portugal), boasts a discography of 18 studio releases, ranging from full-length albums to EPs and collaborative projects.
Over the course of the night Beam pulled from every corner of his oeuvre, even the most distant, nearly forgotten crevices. In fact, it was not uncommon for him to stop playing and curse after the first few bars of a song, retune his guitar, and chuckle with the crowd as he tried again.
This constant open dialogue made for a degree of intimacy rarely felt in concerts of this size. It was as if Beam was involved in courting the crowd and every person in it. He laughed with them, held short conversations with individual audience members (acting particularly impressed when a woman declared she had given birth to his music twice) and even exchanged jabs with someone who said he was singing too quietly.
Above all else, Beam is a storyteller, in his music and in his persona. One can tell by his demeanor on stage: jovial, self-effacing, yet authoritative — no one else can make strumming an acoustic guitar sound so impassioned, intense, and even violent at times.
A highpoint of the night — of which there were many — came when Beam performed “Lover’s Revolution” off his 2013 release *Ghost on Ghost*. The five minute tour-de-force saw Beam’s voice shift from a calming lullaby to a hysterical shriek to a disarming scratch that echoed the later work of Bob Dylan. It was a genius display of total mastery over strings and voice.
Beam’s performance at the IMU was a one-off. As of now, the tour section of his website reads plainly “No shows booked at the moment.” He can’t be faulted for wanting some time off — he’s just made his way through Spain and Portugal, in addition to a previous tour through South America and Mexico.
He did find the time and energy to make a stop in Iowa City though, to give the community a truly one of a kind performance. Some might brush it off as part of his act, but it seems Beam really means it when he calls the audience his friends.