Miranda Lee Richards also appeared on the bill with Lower Heaven at Spaceland on Feb. 10. She’s pretty enough that you can believe this tiny blonde was a model at one time. She was also in the late 90s a brief member of Brian Jonestown Massacre, but she easily has bountiful talent on her own. A daughter of hippie parents and reared in San Francisco, Richards’ style reflects many of the influences of the 70s music she must have heard from the womb on up. She weaves back and forth between rock, folk, and an easy, country flavor, and she can get a little psychedelic at times too.
This show marked the official release date of Light of X, Richards’ follow-up to the much-admired The Herethereafter (2001). Richards started off with “Lifeboat,” which was one of only two songs of hers I knew and at that point was my favorite. I already like several more songs from the CD I bought that night.
Richards has a calm and collected demeanor onstage, and her band followed her expertly. She started out on guitar, with harmonica on the second number, and switched to keys. Unfortunately I had to crop her excellent guitarist out of the photo above for the crime of being too blurry.
Setlist:
1. Lifeboat
2. unidentified: “You Gotta Let Go” is what I wrote in my notes
3. Early November
4. Hideaway
5. Mirror at the End (with cello accompaniment)
6. Here by the Window
7. Pictures of You
8. 7 Hours (from The Herethereafter)
9. Oddity
“7 Hours” was intended to be the end of the set, but the audience, which included a crowd of friends and her mother, insisted that Richards sing another; someone called out the name. She relented and played the “hidden” track on Light of X. A dark-themed, spoken-word number, it provided a dramatic finish to her set. It appears as a separate track on her EP Early November.
Miranda Lee Richards will be headlining at Spaceland again on Feb. 24.
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I think she played “Olive Tree” as the second song.
March 8th, 2009 at 3:02 pm
Thank you for filling in that blank, Brad. I’ll have to take your word for it because I can’t remember enough about the performance now to be able to say.
Say, I can’t believe I didn’t recognize you at the show that night!
March 8th, 2009 at 4:26 pm
I just found this post after hearing her on blip.fm and needing to hear more. Imagine that, I found her HERE! I want the new cd now!
March 29th, 2009 at 1:05 pm