Elliott Smith, La Zona Rosa, May 5

Elliott Smith

La Zona Rosa, May 5

It's a bit bizarre watching an adoring crowd fill up a hall for a toadish little fellow who skitters away like an insect when the glare of a light shines his way. Not showy, not pretty, and not a hitmaker, Elliott Smith has arrived at the point in his career where a full house will applaud him for just being him. At his last Austin show for South by Southwest, Smith frustrated much of the audience by playing a set comprised primarily of songs from an unreleased album. By Saturday's show time, Figure 8 was only recently available, yet the crowd seemed ecstatic when the same thing happened all over again. As the lights went out, the cheers went up like a proper rock show, which is, oddly enough, what it aspired to be. Hatless but wristbanded, Smith sneaked onstage with his four-piece band, plugged in his guitar, and sought to recreate the new album. For those who had already spent some quality time with the new disc, the show seemed a success. For the fans of the Kill Rock Stars stuff -- those who found XO's songs inferior and will undoubtedly be disappointed by the inconsistency of the latest -- the show seemed almost rude in its snubbing of the past. Though he did play a handful of older tunes, he chose the worst from XO ("Amity," for example, which no one likes), and then shied away from undeniable songs like "Waltz #2." His voice was not built to rock, so new songs like "LA" or "Junk Bond Trader" sounded weak live. With his first band Heatmeiser, Smith did this rock thing, a bit boringly, in fact. It was his low-fi, four-track pop songs that led to his success, and back on a major label, it's ironic he's returned to fuller band sound. That said, his voice can't handle the strain, and the melodic subtleties get lost in the electric goop. The only details that were accentuated live were the piano hooks, as on "Son of Sam" and "Color Bars," which remind us why Smith supercedes all other Beatles descendents; he doesn't lop off chunks of Lennon-McCartney, he merely lifts essences (his Harrison attitude was revealed in a cover of "I Me Mine") while remaining wholly himself. His strongest self is his ballad self, a point proven when he played his second encore sans band. Asking the crowd if they'd like a happy or sad song, he responded with the sounds-like-Miss-Misery-song, "Easy Way Out." Afterward, he asked whether they'd like a cover or an original. Though it seemed a bit sad at first that the crowd screamed for a cover (maybe they didn't want to risk another new one), any disappointment slipped away as the ballad man eased into every girl's favorite Big Star song, "Thirteen." Perhaps it's a bad thing when someone else wrote the night's best song, but the fact is, Smith can write ones this good. He just doesn't seem interested in playing them anymore.