Hope Sandoval & the Warm Inventions bring the lights down in San Francisco

September 26, 2009, at the Fillmore

By Camille Ikalina Robles
Published: September 29th, 2009 | 9:00pm

Hope Sandoval guards her privacy well. It’s more than a distancing from public life. It’s deliberate and calculated, a rare quality in an industry where many of today’s musicians blog or twitter their lives away to their adoring public. The rare interviews she has given throughout her music career have not shined any new light into the inner workings of Sandoval’s character but have only surrounded her experience with more mystery than before.

Sandoval’s Fillmore performance in San Francisco was no exception. Lit from behind with a projection of vintage film images against a white screen, the rare glimpses of Sandoval would come only from the random streams of light that would on occasion fall across her face. These random bits of light would sometimes noticeably catch her by surprise. Silhouetted with a faint blue light from above, it was hard at times for Sandoval to even read her own set list. Disconcerted fans spent the breaks between songs shouting at the singer, “We can’t see your beautiful face” or “Turn on the lights.” Sandoval’s coy and demurred response all night was a simple, “We can’t hear you up here.”

If anything, the dim lit venue only enhanced the mood of Sandoval’s melodic, psychedelic folk musings. Backed by the Warm Inventions’ Colm Ó Cíosóig (formerly of My Bloody Valentine) and members of Dirt Blue Gene, Sandoval’s set included songs off their first release, 2001’s Bavarian Fruit Bread (Sanctuary) and the band’s upcoming sophomore album, Through The Devil Softly (Nettwerk). The Warm Inventions provided gritty, fuzzy guitars and hypnotic percussion while leaving vocal, harmonica, and glockenspiel duties to Sandoval.

Dim lit room or not, you didn’t have to see anything to be moved by Sandoval’s ethereal croon. Floating effortlessly above the rhythmic punch moving just behind her, Sandoval would often hold back her vocals, as if invisible words could hang suspended up above her head. Her vocal stylings were recognizable in such a way that her long-time fans couldn’t help reminisce about her previous work as the vocalist for Mazzy Star.

Whether tapping away at the glockenspiel or using her harmonica through the distortion mic, Sandoval was just as intriguing to watch as listen to. At times when she was neither singing nor playing, Sandoval appeared awkward and uncomfortable — checking around in anticipation that something might go wrong and stressed at times when the band suffered through some technical difficulties. Regaining her composure when everything got fixed, it seemed as though the tension never really left her. These things only made Sandoval more endearingly human, even when surrounded by celestial musical madness.

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Hope Sandoval official site

Hope Sandoval & the Warm Inventions MySpace page

Nettwerk Records