Life > February 21, 2008

By Rachel Kowal | Staff writer

Following his self-released debut album, For Emma, Forever Ago, Bon Iver (pronounced “boohn eevair”) has steadily built an impressive series of positive reviews from the likes of NPR and Pitchfork Media. It was therefore no surprise that Cat’s Cradle’s little sister music venue, the Local 506, was packed for his show on Feb. 18.

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The evening began with Heather McEntire and Megafaun, both local acts.

While McEntire and her accompanists played a relatively laid back set, Megafaun, a Durham-based band, immediately involved the audience from their opening song by passing out various instruments to the audience including mini-tambourines, shakers and cowbells.

At the conclusion of this lively and relatively short set, the drummer left the stage in the middle of a song in order to join the people dancing in the front row.

Though the transition between the noisier and more active Megafaun and the more hushed act of Bon Iver was a bit rough, the intimate tones perpetuated by the two opening local bands were continued by Justin Vernon of Bon Iver who also had ties with the audience.

Interestingly, Vernon and the members of Megafaun were once united in another band called DeYarmond Edison before they parted ways and began new projects.

Vernon’s unique singing style, which vacillates between rich, deep tones and a high-pitched, crooning falsetto may sound like a strange concept, but it all comes together to create an earnest and moving presentation. “Skinny Love,” the track awarded the Song of the Day on NPR back in January, is perhaps the best example of this stirring combination because it contains the full range of Vernon’s vocal abilities, set to a hauntingly beautiful melody.

“Skinny Love” is one of those songs that upon hearing once, you may be tempted to play it another 10 times throughout the course of the day.

Perhaps one of my only critiques of Bon Iver was the lack of creativity in composing a setlist as the band literally played the songs in the order that they appeared on the album.

Even this, however, was forgiven after Vernon jokingly drew attention to this choice, making the claim that since no one else does this, they are being “original.”

Considering that Bon Iver is an intentionally altered form of the French phrase “bon hiver,” which means “good winter,” it seems only appropriate that Vernon should record For Emma in his father’s cabin in Wisconsin during the cold wintry months. In line with its organic conception, the album has a charming home-made quality to it and is full of intimate vocals that sometimes border on the ethereal.

Though self-released last year, For Emma, Forever Ago was re-released on Feb. 19 under the label Jagjaguwar, making the recent show a call for celebration.

Bon Iver just kicked off a tour with band Black Mountain on Tuesday in Washington D.C.

The entire show can be downloaded for free from NPR’s All Songs Considered Concerts podcast on iTunes.