Ray LaMontagne @ 9:30 Club

Ray LaMontagne
9:30 Club, Washington, D.C.
Friday, Aug. 12, 2005

Ray LaMontagne received perhaps the greatest affirmation yet of the cachet he has gained in the 11 months since releasing his major-label debut, "Trouble," when he took the stage at Washington's 9:30 Club on Friday night.

Silence.

OK, not total silence. You couldn't hear, as David Mamet might say, an ant pissing on cotton, but we're talking about a rock club. It surely was the quietest the 9:30 has been during a show since, well, ever.

Almost the only sounds heard during LaMontagne's first three songs were those of patrons shushing their neighbors. This from a crowd that was downright rude by talking loudly over the entire set by the opener, Australia's Sarah Blasko.

Despite that shameful if all-too-familiar behavior, you still had to give the crowd credit. Though they started terribly, the majority of the house recognized they were in the presence of emerging greatness when LaMontagne took center stage.

The greatest embodiment of LaMontagne's potential is his voice. He has first-rate material, but it's the delivery that grabs you by the throat when it's not tugging at your heart.

LaMontagne's wiry frame wrings forth a voice that seems impossibly old, worn and weary for its thirtysomething years. The incongruity became even more apparent when LaMontagne addressed the audience between tunes, which he did rarely.

When not singing, LaMontagne was tentative, nervously rubbing the back of his head like a child waiting for his parents' reaction as they peruse a report card full of F's. He fumbled for words that same child would likely find easily.

When LaMontagne stood and delivered, though, the timidity ebbed and the assured voice washed loudly and clearly over the enthralled crowd. He's been likened to a certain well-know Irishman, but comparisons to Van the Man aren't fair to an artist so young. They also don't do LaMontagne's own vocal instrument justice.

His is a voice that can evoke a tortured soul or a muscular soul singer, and, like all great sounds in music, it sounds timeless rather than of a time. If a member of the audience closed their eyes Friday, and many likely did during tender versions of breakouts "Trouble" and "Jolene" from the debut, they would have had a hard time telling whether they were hearing a singer from 2005 or 1965.

LaMontagne definitely is of this time, though, and his moment in the spotlight is now. The bulk of the 15-song set* was pulled from "Trouble," most of them filled out with the help of double-bassist Chris Thomas and drummer Larry Ciancia. LaMontagne had the self assurance of a road-tested artist, and the command over his songs to change them slightly, bending the phrasing to a just-off-the-beat beauty on "Shelter" and "Trouble." Other highlights were "Burn" and "Forever My Friend."

If the silence hadn't convinced LaMontagne that he'd arrived, perhaps the sing-along on "Hold You in My Arms" did. Nothing like a thousand perfect strangers singing the back-up parts to a deep-album cut to let you know that your music is affecting people.

With adulation, though, comes expectations. Some stagger beneath their weight. It seems that if LaMontagne can survive his brutal touring schedule he'll shoulder them with relative ease and rise above the so-called "sophomore jinx." He played a few new songs, and none of them suggested a drop-off in quality when we see his follow-up. Since there was little between-song banter, he wasn't forthcoming with the titles. One of them is being called "Danielle" or "You've Got What I Want (So Why Don't You Give It To Me?)." on the message boards. Whatever the title, it rocked harder than most of "Trouble," and indicated that LaMontagne's job description soon could read as more than "troubadour." Near the end of the night, he played a song written about one of his heroes, Townes Van Zandt. It had a country flavor, and the notable line, "If Jesus loves sinners, let heaven be a honky-tonk."

LaMontagne closed the show with a two-song encore, a tremendous version of "How Come," which bears catchy resemblance to Dave Mason's "Feelin' Alright," and a sweetly fingerpicked song the fan sites are calling "Can I Stay?"

At the end of the song, when the silence was broken by wild applause, the answer to that question was a resounding "yes."

*I like to post a setlist to give you a more complete picture of the show, but because five of the 15 songs were new or unreleased I didn't think it would be much help. Here it is, though, gaps and all: 1. Burn/2. Still Can't Feel the Gin/3. (Unreleased)/4. Narrow Escape/5. Jolene/6. Hold You in My Arms/7. Shelter/8. (Unreleased)/9. Hannah/10. Trouble/11. (Unreleased)/12. Forever My Friend/13. (Unreleased ... Heaven is a Honky-Tonk?)/14. How Come/15. (Unreleased ... Can I Stay?)