KCRW’s ‘Friends’ serve up diverse, tasty morsels

Kevin Bronson on
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The name of KCRW’s holiday benefit show posed the so-rhetorical-it’s-silly question “Are Friends Eclectic? Gee, waddya think? You’d be hard-pressed to find the fare at Saturday’s four-plus-hour concert in the same time zone, let alone on the same spot on your FM dial. While “Eclectic’s” genial host, KCRW music director Jason Bentley, repeatedly marveled about how the evening was a celebration “of the power of music,” it was more specifically about allowing a diverse array of musical voices into your conversation. At that, KCRW owns the franchise.

Even though the electronica, R&B and other flavors that the tastemaking FM station champions were not on the menu Saturday at the Orpheum Theatre, “Are Friends Eclectic?” still seemed like one of those dinner parties where polite, well-dressed people come round with bright plates of hors d’oeuvres. Tasty morsels all, from the acoustic sets from the likes of Brett Dennen, Zee Avi and the Belle Brigade to plugged-in theatrics courtesy of Iron & Wine, Anna Calvi and Other Lives.

Oh, and at the center of the party: a banquet table of Jimmy Cliff, for fans who like their music face-first. The 63-year-old reggae legend, dressed to shine, held forth with a 12-person backing band that included Rancid’s Tim Armstrong, who plays his guitar lefty and low-slung, and with whom Cliff is collaborating on new music. Cliff’s nuggets “The Harder They Come” and “Vietnam” inspired some dancing in the aisles, and the new, anthemic number “One More” stokes the fires of anticipation for the forthcoming release.

The set by Londoner Calvi threatened to steal the show – the material off her self-titled album released in January alternated between big, dark sheets of guitar and big, dark blankets of sultry vocals, the latter a big juxtaposition to her speaking voice, a Peppermint Patty squawk you’d expect from the girl next door until she starts bellowing about how her “desire is so strong.”

But the show was made for those kind of surprises. The Belle Brigade’s Barbara Gruska likened it to “The Gong Show,” but nobody got chased off; Dennen, in fact, was asked to stay around for one more song. Mia Doi Todd’s one-song opener, the cover “Canto de Lemanja,” was so solemn it felt like an invocation, and the pastoral, four-song outing by Oklahoma’s Other Lives had a hymnal quality too. White Denim’s psychedelic prog-rock provided the meatiest fare for rockists, and the Secret Sisters rivaled the Belle Brigade with their harmonies.

Iron & Wine closed out the evening with surprising exuberance, considering the intimate nature of Sam Beam’s music. Beam was at the front of an 11-person band (including the Swell Season’s Marketa Irglova as one of the backup singers), cheery and gracious but no less moving than when Iron & Wine is just man and guitar. Beam’s set injected come catharsis into the evening’s review of a year that, while rich musically, had all the makings of apocalypse if you just read the headlines.