...Is the same as the problem with everything: that the prolific artist is a fast-moving river, impossible to step back into the same. (This is maybe most dramatic with the shift from the Microphones to Mount Eerie, but it's ongoing). Since the last time I wrote about him at length, not even a year ago, he's released two new albums, Mount Eerie's Black Wooden Ceiling Opening and the Julie Doiron collaboration Lost Wisdom, as well as a diary, Dawn, which comes packaged with yet another album. I've just now gotten really used to the songs on Black Wooden Ceiling Opening, songs like "Don't Smoke" and "Domesticated Dog," and it's already too late, he's on to a whole new batch of songs. His set last night, solo but electric, heavy on low feedback hum, sustained chords and slow-motion headbanging metal strum, consisted of newer songs—"Come Wind," "If My Heart Were At Peace," others—that I'll probably get familiar with just in time for him to move on. There were songs about writing songs ("Was it a dream?" and "Buried in Space," with its line about how the singer dies but the song stays), typical of how Elverum's style has grown more and more narrowly reflexive over the years. There was a song about "flame upon flame" burning down an old house until there was nothing left but ashes to wake up to. There were lines about "the wind I thought I found" and "the moon in my mind," which was as close to that old object of his affections as we got (no "Moon," not even "Moon Sequel," which I was dying to hear, but oh well).

As always, Elverum was a charming, self-effacing performer, given to banter like: "Just so you know, I'm playing a lot of new songs—I don't know why I told you that...a fun piece of trivia," and, "Thanks for watching me, 'cause it feels really cool to be watched, and thanks for watching all the other cool people." And The Fremont Abbey was an ideal space for the show. In its warm, hushed atmosphere I even found myself fully enthralled by Tiny Vipers for maybe the first time ever (I've previously always seen her at either bars or the awesome but ambience-impaired Vera Project, and those setting have been less flattering), really appreciating the glacial pace and big, contemplative spaces in her songs.