Mark Kozelek

Many lessons were learned last time Mark Kozelek came to Denver to perform at the Soiled Dove Underground. Koz doesn’t get laid in Denver. He doesn’t drink or smoke pot. He doesn’t like the outdoors and has nothing in common with the “sporty” couples of Colorado. But the most important lesson was to refrain from eating Buffalo wings while the man is performing. Having learned our lesson, we were spared that particular rant on Thursday night. Instead, the 48 year old singer-songwriter took the stage with stories about Anton LaVey, Steve McQueen and dreams of moving to the West Coast, all while beating a drum with a single stick. Then he told a couple little girls in the audience that their dog was going to die…just like his girlfriend’s dog, his grandmother and his friend Brett.

Things didn’t exactly lighten up when he sat down with his guitar to perform his latest single, “The Possum”. Admitting the single wasn’t much of a success because people didn’t understand it, he proceeded anyway. The nine minute track uses a dying possum and a Godflesh concert at the DNA Lounge as inspiration to live every day to its fullest. Half the track is sung like Justin Broadrick, while other parts are spoken word. I’m not sure Koz realizes that his fanbase overlaps with The War on Drugs more than it does with Godflesh, which might explain the lukewarm response to the single, but it probably wouldn’t matter if he did. Mark Kozelek doesn’t really give a shit what people think. He never has. His attitude is not something new. “It’s not something that started in September.” That being said, following the single with “Tiny Cities Made of Ashes” was a great move. With everyone on common ground again, we were prepared for the first disaster of the evening.

When his tuner went out, the lighting guy became the target of Koz’s frustration. Was the tuner cursed because it was purchased in Newtown, Connecticut? Could the lighting guy go get him a 9-volt battery? Could the audience stop laughing? Was it his guitar? “This is not funny!” Luckily the situation was remedied in short time and within minutes Koz was further down the road of “making friends” with lighthearted misogyny (if there is such a thing) and Denver bashing. One of the funniest exchanges came at this point in the show. When Koz claimed that he had never once signed a piece of vinyl for a girl in his entire career, a female audience member walked up to the stage with a copy of Benji and asked him to sign it. He accused her of asking for her boyfriend or uncle, told her there was nothing on the album she could relate to, took the album from her, threw the album on the ground behind him, and then offered her $500 cash to name five tracks on the album. She said “330 Area Code” and “My Dead Cousin”, to which he replied “no, those are not names of songs on that album”. She was more successful at naming songs from his older albums, to which he claimed to be aroused. He told her she was cute, gave her the album back and said he would sign it after the show. Then he performed “Dogs”, a song that documents his first sexual encounter and the many uncomfortable and awkward sexual encounters that followed.

I’m a Sun Kil Moon fan, and when I found out that Mark Kozelek was the master behind their compositions. I took it upon myself to listen to more of his music away from the band, such as his solo work. As he’s a competent guitarist, he created incredible indie singer songwriter work on his own without the need of a huge band, in contrast to his Sun Kil Moon, and Red House Painters work.

He opened the show with Rock ‘n’ Roll Singer, from his debut EP, and as his distinctive baritone voice washed out across the auditorium, and everyone was cheering right away. He was great at interacting with the audience, and kept shouting out for everyone to sing along with him, which was awesome and super exciting. When he played Bedtime Lullaby, he taught everyone a section of the chorus, and got us all singing together, whilst he sang a different harmony over the top. At the end of the show, he was chatting to us in the crowd, and said that he was writing some new music, and he sang us a new song form one of the tracks, which was awesome to hear live before it was even released!