A Hawk And A Hacksaw - Live
[Manchester Music Box]

A great deal has changed since New Mexicans, A Hawk And Hacksaw (AHAAH) frequented these shores in 2006 in order to promote their violin and harmonica brandishing album, ‘The Way The Wind Blows’. For a start, ex Neutral Milk Hotel drummer and firmly the face of AHAAH, Jeremy Barnes, has lost the percussion yielding fun hat now that he’s passed thirty. Also, two accomplished Hungarian musicians keep him and violinist, Heather Trost company onstage. Latest release ‘And The Hunger Ensemble’, represents a bolder take on their largely instrumental foraging through blues to skirt classical music with stop off at gypsy-folk, en route. Heather Trost delivers a noire led violin kick and a feisty violin march early in, illuminating the range of these accomplished musicians on display.

A one hour and forty minutes set passes by and the deft range sends gatherers into a comfort zone. Jeremy Barnes makes you question why the accordion hasn’t taken over from the keyboard in this day and age. Given the robust thrust and aching strut he conjures from his instrument that is. A highlight is reached when he spends the encore in the middle of the crowd, drawing everybody in with his focused serenading of Trost. Then the mysterious and focused femme moves to the front of the stage, to give the romantic, classic tinged encore more heart and personality. With vocals being sparse to say the least, during this set, Barnes and Trost show a rare, continuing boldness. A Hawk And A Hacksaw continue to stretch their instruments beyond conventional boundaries, to mesmerizing effect.