NATHAN HALPERN

Posted by Samantha - filed in Events

Somewhat refreshingly in this age of confessional culture and Heat-style intimacy, Colorado-born Joaquin Phoenix lookalike Patrick Park is giving nothing away.

There’s a dark veil over the songs on his debut album ‘Loneliness Knows My Name’, and hints of a protected past. As he’s a karate expert and ex-bouncer, you might not push too hard either.

Tonight’s tiny venue provides an intimate setting to hear the countrified layers of his album stripped away to reveal a raw folk/blues tinged talent, letting Park’s voice soar like the mighty howl of an early Van Morrison or dead folky Nick Drake. While amiable, Park is a man of few words and seems that he is never going to tell us what these songs are about: the mix of bile and beauty that makes ‘Honest Skrew’ such a tender threat, the weary gorgeousness of ‘Something Pretty (“walked a million miles in tobacco skin”) and the unnerving mystery of ‘Bullets by the Door’, which hints ominously at terrorism and retribution.

When a mobile erupts during the set, the modern communication age seems surreal. Patrick Park is keeping his old-fashioned secrets tantalisingly close to his chest, and for that he is the most intriguing prospect in town. -NME

With:
I.L.Y. (Emily Kokal from Warpaint)
Jen Furches
Nathan Halpern