Out with an accoustic bang

After my disappointment at the October Jump, Little Children show, my hopes were astronomically high for last night's concert.

They were exceeded.

What a fabulous show, what a fabulous venue, what a fabulous band that I will miss incredibly.

Jump played an hour-and-a-half accoustic set at The Neighborhood Theater that just blew me away. This one was right up there with the Oct. 1998 show in Athens, maybe even better since what I especially love about Jump is their varied use of instruments and gorgeous melodies. The core five musicians were backed by a six-piece string group and an electric organ, and the music filled the theater (thankfully not just a club, an actual old movie theater). They played essentially every mellow song from "Vertigo" and "Between the Dim and the Dark." While I do love a high-energy Jump song, nothing beats Jay Clifford's voice soaring above guitar, bass and cello.

The opener, the As Is Group, didn't really match Jump's music, but they were okay. Sort of improv jazz, which I've never been able to get into. But the organist from that group is also in Rosebud with Jay, and they did a couple of their songs

About two-thirds through the show, Matt Bivins broke out his penny whistle and they brought their violinist friend Amanda forward for an Irish song about a man who loses his daughter that reduced me to tears. Then the focus went back to just Jay, and he played not even a full measure before I recognized the highlight of my night: "Cathedrals." I had been crushed in October when they didn't play this, and last night's version was beautiful, so beautiful I cried. Cried because the music is stunning, but also because of all my memories associated with this band and this song. I used the chorus as an epigram once in college, and it's just so perfect for much of my life: "In the cathedrals of New York and Rome/ there is a feeling that you should just go home/ and spend a lifetime finding out just where that is." The next song was an Appalachian tune, "Copper Kettle," that was a lot of fun, followed by a jig by Matt and Amanda, and then they played a song I'd never heard before, "The Way They Dance." Jay called it the official wedding song, and it really is just about the most perfect first dance song I've ever heard (though Dave Matthews "Crush" will always have a special place in my heart). The song, all about how you can see how in love a couple is by the way they dance, was simple and beautiful, made that much more charming by the couple that were obviously reliving their first dance in the aisle next to us. Probably the best straight 20 minutes of Jump I've seen.

The whole show was great. The band was well suited to the theater and were obviously enjoying themselves -- each other, the music, the audience. Their personalities really shined, even by how they were dressed: Jay, the moody romantic one wearing jeans, a loosely knotted tie and corduroy jacket; Jonathan, the happy, energetic bassist wearing a three-piece suit, bowtie and bowler; Matt, the overtly sexual one a bit toned down in shirt and tie but not in how he moved; Ward the serious cellist ignoring trying to be cool by just wearing a t-shirt; and Evan, the quiety, slightly odd drummer, well, looking like a quiet drummer that you kind of forget to notice.

It's been so much fun to watch this band develop and mature. I'm secretly glad they never got beyond regional because it kept their shows so intimate and the fans so connected. I'm seriously going to miss seeing them live. Here's hoping they miss it too and tour together again beyond Charleston.