Actress Deschanel impressive in rock duo [Barrymore - Madison, WI Review]

Posted on August 9, 2008

There’s a positive review of She & Him’s August 8th performance at the Barrymore in The Capital Times:

It reads like the screenplay for a 1960s B-movie musical aimed at the teen drive-in crowd: A glamorous, young Hollywood actress meets up with a scruffy roots rocker, and the unlikely duo make beautiful music together.

It doesn’t sound like the sort of movie that Zooey Deschanel would agree to star in (although she was in M. Night Shyamalan’s hilariously bad “The Happening,” so who knows?). But she’s living the real-life version with indie rocker M. Ward as the duo She & Him, who together played an utterly charming show at the Barrymore Theatre on Friday night.

The well-attended show was the final night of She & Him’s summer tour, and the duo (along with four other band members) visibly seemed to be having fun on stage. Wearing a bright-blue party dress and matching flower in her hair, Deschanel hopped up and down, banging her tambourine gleefully as Ward played twangy guitar on the bouncier tunes, like “Why Do You Let Me Stay Here?”

Some cynics may look askance at a movie actress trying to make a go of a music career, but Deschanel really can sing, as she proved in her duet with Will Ferrell of “Baby, It’s Cold Outside” in “Elf.” Her voice is technically strong, with a bit of a Patsy Cline feel to it, but more importantly, it has real personality and presence.

Deschanel wrote all 10 of the original songs on the recent “Volume One” CD, and her songwriting is a winsome and unpretentious throwback to classic pop and country genres, with a bit of doo-wop here, a bit of high lonesome twang there. The less inspired of the songs seem more like enjoyable pastiches rather than fully original creations, but for the most part, it’s likable and surprisingly subtle music that rises beyond its influences.

While the full band arrangements were fun in concert, the show really became something special when the other four band members left the stage for a spell. That gave Deschanel and Ward space for a few duets that allowed the offbeat appeal of their partnership to really come through.

With Deschanel on piano and Ward on guitar, they did the wistfully gorgeous “Sentimental Heart” and a lovely cover of “You Really Gotta Hold on Me,” Deschanel’s bell-clear vocals beautifully overlaid on top of Ward’s more ragged voice.

Other covers included a slinky version of the Beatles’ “I Should Have Known Better” during the four-song encore, and a rollicking cover of Joni Mitchell’s “You Turn Me On, I’m a Radio.” The high-spirited “Why Do You Let Me Stay Here?” had the band bouncing around, and Ward and Deschanel closed the main set by sitting side by side at the piano, plinking away together.

You get the sense that they like each other and that they’re happily surprised they can find such common ground together. And it’s gratifying to see that they titled their first album “Volume One.” If there’s anything Hollywood loves, it’s a sequel.

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