Phosphorescent
Album: Live At The Music Hall
Label: Dead Oceans
Tracks: 19
Website: http://phosphorescentmusic.com/

"20 quid says this is the best band you'll hear all weekend." That was the Saturday afternoon of the 2010 End Of The Road festival and Mathew Houck had not long gone from solo performer to band leader. Even on a bill that included The Low Anthem, The Felice Brothers and headlining sets from Wilco and Yo La Tengo there were no takers for this wager (and the guy looking for the wager was - and still is - a massive Wilco fan). Four summers later I see Phosphorescent on a summer's afternoon again, this time in a tent in Hyde Park as one of the supports for Neil Young. He may not have upstaged the headliner that day but I was left wondering why not he, rather than bore rockers The National, got second on the bill.

Live At The Music Hall is not your standard greatest hits package with a couple of introductions and an applause track added. It is an album that captures Houck in a moment in time, so 2013's Muchacho get 8 tracks but 2010's Here's To Taking It Easy gets only three, sadly with no room for It's Hard To Be Humble, (and if you're a Willie Nelson fan you're really out of luck).

The album was recorded over 4 nights (one solo and three with his band) at the 550 capacity The Music Hall of Williamsburg in Brooklyn, New York. This leads to the inevitable hindering of the flow of the album, especially as the last three tracks of the first CD are from the solo night.

Live At The Music Hall captures Phosphorescent at his/their expansive best; the ten minute plus workings of Lost Angeles and Wolves never feel over blown and Song for Zula never fails to delight. It is not a perfect live album, but it is better than most and could be considered as essential listening.

John 'The Jacket' Hawes