The Places

Live at the Milky Way, Jamaica Plain, MA, October 25 2001

Chris Dahlen

It must be tough to come all the way from Portland, Oregon to play a show and then have to compete with a bowling alley. The Milky Way in Jamaica Plain has a snazzy lounge area with candlelit tables in front of the stage, but around a corner is an actual set of lanes. On a samba night the band can get the whole room hopping, but if the performers are quiet, the audience has to huddle near to hear the music. Such was the case with the Places last Thursday night. Singer, guitarist and songwriter Amy Annelle, backed only by a drummer, played a remarkably quiet set that demanded attention even as everything in the room conspired against her. Another performer would have turned up the amps and played some fast tunes, but Annelle stuck to her set of slow, lonely numbers.

If Suzanne Vega sounded a little more real, she might sound like Amy Annelle. Annelle's voice is subtle and breathy, but also deep and rich. At the start of the Places' Autopilot Knows You Best she almost purrs the first few lines, in a low voice whose undertones are a little like the sound of blowing on the neck of a beer bottle. Her songs are both dreamy and rough, sometimes surreal and sometimes achingly solitary.

Working with the Places, Annelle expanded her music, both instrumentally—the band can include accordion, violin, and lap steel guitar - and in the production, which includes "found sound" from radio broadcasts and old records. Autopilot Knows You Best, their debut, is one of the year's strongest releases. It's the best kind of headphone album: it's full of detail and meant to be played straight through, but it's not overproduced or claustrophobic.

I was looking forward to catching the Places at the Milky Way, and I was surprised to see that the band on tour is stripped down to a duo. A second guitarist could have bolstered some of the songs, and a couple of the instrumental passages faltered a little; but what was lacking in polish was made up for in the intimacy of the performance. Annelle put together a setlist of quiet and serious songs that were effective with simple instrumentation. The drummer—I didn't catch his name—gave sparse but expert accompaniment, and Annelle was fairly quiet on guitar, playing as few chords as necessary. Nothing distracted from her voice, which was just as beautiful over a club P.A. as on record, and just as compelling.

The set ranged from the countryish "Will Try," one of Annelle's best tunes, to songs that were both gentle ("Soft City") and foreboding ("Ships at Sea"). After a half-hour of playing, they closed with the late night ballad "Ode to the Exhausted." Both serious and comforting, this is music that has trouble in a bar but belongs in one—ballads for barflies, rough around the edges, and sung with conviction.

Related resources

Information on Amy Annelle and the Places can be found at Absolutely Kosher Records (for the Places) and Hush Records (for Annelle's solo work).

Epitonic has two mp3's from the Places, and Insound hosts two of Amy Annelle's solo tracks.

There are several articles and reviews on the web, including here and here (check out the Real audio interview clips).