Seattle dream-pop duo Lemolo’s hour-long DVD A Beautiful Night: Live at The Columbia City Theater dropped last summer, but damned if it hasn’t found its way back into my DVD player repeatedly in the ensuing months.
The sheer sonic riches provide a lot of the movie’s durability. All 11 songs from Lemolo’s stunning 2012 debut The Kaleidoscope receive impassioned live readings here, and the impeccable audio production by veteran Columbia City Theater soundman Gary Mula makes it easy to just listen as the DVD plays. The band’s performances more than warrant the extra care put into the audio presentation, too: Meagan Grandall’s voice alights on high notes with unadorned beauty while her guitar and piano provide a bed of texture that rivals (and sometimes surpasses) The Kaleidoscope’s atmospheric strokes, while Kendra Cox’s forceful, outside-the-box live drumming provides a nimble foundation for Grandall’s alternately ethereal and direct songs.
A Beautiful Night was produced by Creative Differences, the production team behind the acclaimed music doc Welcome to Doe Bay, and it shares that film’s low-key but attentive eye for live band dynamics. It’s thrilling to watch Grandall’s shyness give way as she bobs and sways, transported and galvanized by the music all at once. Cox’s expressive face and wide-eyed abandon behind the kit provide the boisterous Yang to Grandall’s dreamlike Yin. That full-on commitment–and the joyous, almost telepathic interplay between the two women onstage–makes A Beautiful Night one of those truly rare birds–a concert film that’s as absorbing cinematically as it is musically.
I talked to Grandall by phone about the challenges of filming A Beautiful Night, and her feelings about the DVD in the wake of Cox’s amicable departure from the band last August.
How did the Beautiful Night DVD come about?
I met the Creative Differences team when they were shooting the Doe Bay documentary. They included a portion of Lemolo’s Doe Bay set in movie, and we became friends. When we had our album release shows, Kendra and I really wanted to document them, but we were just thinking about a video. We didn’t have any grand plans until we met Creative Differences and they proposed the idea of an actual full-length film project.
How do you feel about the end result? I’m assuming you’re pretty happy with it.
Yeah, the quality of the footage is incredible. I definitely feel really lucky that they chose us to make this DVD. I feel like they probably could have their pick of musicians in the city to work with on something like this. It was such a professional product, and it was really a pleasure to be part of it.
What was it like working with a film crew? Was it different than a regular gig logistically?
It was just a little different…a little added pressure [laughs]…The shows we filmed were our album release shows. That was the first time the band had ever headlined a show, the first time we ever sold out a show, and the first time we ever had an album. I was already very nervous for those [reasons], and I’d imagine Kendra was, too. But the great thing was that we filmed over two nights, so we had two shows’ worth of footage to pick from. If there was a performance [of a song] that felt better one night than the other night, we could choose between them.
How did it feel watching yourself in this movie?
Well, I was very proud of myself, and proud of Kendra, and proud of the band. I’m really happy with the performances, but I’ve always had a hard time watching myself in video and listening to recordings of myself. For some reason, it’s always been uncomfortable. Maybe that’s just human nature: I don’t know if that’ll ever go away [laughs]. Overall though, I mostly [felt] pride watching it. It was really a cool opportunity to get the perspective of what it was like in the audience’s shoes, too.
It’s a hard balance to keep the atmosphere of The Kaleidoscope live without sounding like a carbon copy of the CD, and the performances on the DVD really walk that tightrope well.
Thanks! The cool thing about it is, playing a live show, there’s always a really special energy. Even if you try to create that in the studio, it never quite seems the same as when you’re in front of an audience of people who are giving you a lot of love–that’s sort of unique and special to a show.
Did being involved in the filming of your CD release shows make you think about branching off into things like movie soundtracks or other aspects of performing or creating?
Funny you asked that, because yesterday I made a music video with a friend who is a filmmaker, and we were talking about people that he knows who make music for films for a living. And that was the first day that it really hit me that I’d love doing that. I’ve always dreamed about having my songs with the band included in a film. But just yesterday I realized it would also be really cool and enjoyable to do scoring for films.
Your composition style seems like it would really lend itself well to film work.
Thank you for the compliment! I like mood, and I like a really cinematic vibe, so maybe that’s why. I think, at some point down the road that’d be an awesome addition to my career. But my focus right now is definitely on the band, and writing music to play live and to perform. But we will see: You never know what will happen.
{Lemolo’s A Beautiful Night can be purchased through Bandcamp.}
