Live Review: Elephant Micah @ The Hideout 7/13/06

The slow sad wonders of Joe O’Connell make up what is known as Elephant Micah. Joe sat down at the piano making us all witnesses to his melancholy as he sang with his sweet lull of a voice songs about birds and relationships. Softly, he pleaded: “Take these vague feelings from me. Leave only the true meaning” in his song, “Dividing Our Horizon.” Live, his voice had a bit more of a tenor quality with just a touch of vibrato at times. I can see fans of The Doleful Lions, Hayden, and even Neil Young being really drawn to his songs. After playing a few songs on the piano, he moved to guitar and played solo for a few songs before he was joined on stage by Beth Remis of Static Films who provided beautiful harmonizing backup vocals and violin accompaniment as he sang: “Was I cold in the ground by the time I managed the sound of the names and the hymns they were singing?” Overall, I found Elephant Micah disarming and even as he asked the question, “Is it all just a fiction?” he was also reassuring: “There’s no underground. There’s light shining everywhere.” Here are a couple of links to my favorite songs he has posted on his mp3 page: The Environmentalist Mt. Neil Young -Kirstiecat