The Durham Performing Arts Center has quickly become known as the finest upscale venue in central North Carolina, and one of the best on the east coast. In hosting everything from Wicked to Wilco to Lewis Black to Leonard Cohen, the 2700-seat room has made an impact on a wide variety of people since it opened less than two years ago. The impeccable sound and performance-enhancing power of the ultra-modern building was on full display as Norah Jones stopped in Durham on her seemingly endless The Fall tour.
Opener Elvis Perkins did his best to engage the moderately sedate crowd with his solo performance. The beautiful setting amplified the dramatic, visual element of his lyrics, and the respectful crowd allowed the nuance of his vocals and guitar playing to stand out. Perkins also added harmonica to songs like "Chains Chains Chains" and "While You Were Sleeping," which gave his overall sound more than a hint of Dylan. There’s a touch of Hollywood to Perkins’ sound that makes his chosen subject matter incredibly vivid.
After a brief intermission, a relaxed and confident Jones took the stage with her personable five-piece band. It’s always entertaining to see a superstar musician so completely at ease. She playfully greeted a group of late arriving front-row folks ("You came!") and made a mid-set joke about how the very first song she ever wrote was a "total rip-off of the ‘Les Poissons’ song from The Little Mermaid." My last encounter with Jones – Bonnaroo this year – featured far less intimacy, production value and musical variety, so the entire Durham show was a revelation of Jones’ new-found infatuation with dynamics.
Jones has turned upside down the entire world’s idea of what she should be, and though her voice is as arresting as ever, there’s a focus on the overall sound of the music that greatly benefits her live show. She’s gone backwards from country-tinged jazz into a sort of Dixieland-via-Nashville ensemble setup, in which the music is communal and cathartic. Songs like "Stuck" benefit as much from Smokey Hormel’s quivering guitar as they do from Jones’ effortlessly enchanting voice. The set list was primarily comprised of newer songs from The Fall, like "Stuck," "Even Though," "Back to Manhattan," and the extra catchy "Chasing Pirates." The album’s "Light as a Feather" showcased some darker tones, and even featured a rumbling synthesizer drone segment with a minor light show freak-out that truly surprised me.
Apparently – and understandably – bored with the standard versions of her touchstone songs, Jones has turned her show into an exploration of varying formats in which fan favorites are re-imagined with excellent results. What could have been an ordinary reading of "Don’t Know Why" was instead made unique by its stripped-down simplicity – Jones on piano, Dobson and bassist Gus Seyffert on backing vocals. "Come Away with Me," oddly, featured Jones on guitar, which is something she’s doing more and more of as the years pass. "Sunrise" appeared in the encore spot, performed by the entire band around a single mic at the lip of the stage. Jones plinked on a baby piano, flanked by her band on upright bass, banjo, accordion, resonator guitar and percussion. The final song of the show, "Creepin’ In," was performed in a similar fashion, allowing the song’s acoustic roots to show.
This was one of those rare nights where the combined excellence of the performer and venue created an unforgettable experience. The show was a high definition exposure to a rapidly developing new world of music. In a decade’s time, Jones has morphed from soothing pseudo-adult-contemporary singer-songwriter into eclectic artisan, and her show is a good buy for any serious music fan. Her earlier works still hold up, but the passage of time and the experience of life have given Jones good reason to embrace evolution, and we music fans are the lucky beneficiaries of the process.
