After wandering the stage setting up their instruments, Chicago's Handsome Family were still not ready when the lights went up. "I'm having a bad tuning experience," laughed singer-guitarist-composer Brett, his glasses and goatee adding a comedy aspect to his avuncular features. His wife, Rennie, lyricist, bass-player and percussionist, chose to pass time by chatting to the audience. "Any questions about insects?" she asked, looking like a youthful Morticia Addams in a knee-length black dress. "Especially ants. I'm good on ants."
Finally, Brett finished twiddling with his Macintosh G3, the machine which provided an oom-pah-pah back-beat of demented cymbals, tambourines, dustbin-lids and an occasional drum. Giggling as they waited for their intro, the eccentric twosome began with The Giant of Illinois, Brett's country drawl growing steadily more sonorous for the poignant tale of a giant who "died from a blister on his toe". This was followed by the equally freakish and forlorn The Sad Milkman, during which Rennie hugged and stroked her autoharp as if it was a kitten she'd just rescued from the river.
Foregrounded by the Family's bare bone sound, Rennie's lyrics conflate a twisted pastoralism, an off-beat humour and a nice line in American gothic, all of which were afforded the necessary respect by Brett's doleful voice, and his uncomplicated guitar twangs. With Rennie puffing on her melodica, The Woman Downstairs told the story of a neglected neighbour who starved herself to death, while Arlene, a spurned lover's lament, returned to traditional country roots.
Although the bizarre lyrics invoke a chronically romantic vision of love and blood and snow and leaves, and a repeated desire for flight, this is usually countered by a rueful self-parody. The Family's best songs, such as Weightless Again and In the Air, the title track of their new album, combine the two and offer a jovial fatalism, a morbid glee. It's difficult to dismiss existential angst when it comes with a sing-along chorus.
Growling like a female Tom Waits or a madcap hillbilly, Rennie sang Down in the Ground, her only lead vocal of the night. When the drum machine carried on after they'd finished When That Helicopter Comes, she wondered whether "we should remove the human element completely". Really, though, it's the computer they should get rid of. With an additional member or two, the Family would be unmissable.
Handsome Family play Aunt Annie's, Belfast, March 15, Attic, Edinburgh, March 18, then touring.
