Iron & Wine, Chicago Theatre, Chicago, Illinois

I had wanted to see Iron & Wine for quite some time, but his shows always seemed to elude me for the past several years. When he finally did come to the Chicago Theater, a historic venue downtown, I jumped on tickets as soon as they went up. The theatre was old and beautiful, the type of building that they just don’t build anymore. The venue was seated, which I generally don’t prefer, but ours were pretty good, in the orchestra section on the left side of the theater within the first twenty or so rows. Besides, it was a pretty subdued show, so sitting was fine.

There’s no “Iron” or “Wine,” as it’s just a moniker of guitarist, singer, and songwriter Sam Beam (unless you count his massive beard as Iron and the rest of him as Wine), who picked up the name from a dietary supplement called Beef Iron and Wine that he happened to come across. As such,  I was surprised by how many people joined him on stage – three singers, three strings (violin, viola, cello), drummer, keyboardist, bassist, and horn section (tenor and baritone saxes and trumpet).


I really like Iron & Wine, though more just the overall sound and tone of his music and voice; there really aren’t any songs that I was dying to hear. It was kind of a nice feeling though, knowing that I was going to be satisfied with the setlist regardless of what I heard. He played a mix of songs from his albums, jumping from album to album from the most part, pulling heavily from his more recent albums, Kiss Each Other Clean (2011) and Ghost on Ghost (2013), but pulling a song or two or three from nearly all of his albums going back to The Creek Drank the Cradle (2002). He naturally also played his famous of cover of “Such Great Heights.” He was clever, humble, and personable on stage. In the midst of the show, he took requests via shout-out. Many people were yelling for their favorites. However he admitted that the list of options was actually quite limited because he didn’t remember certain songs and other requests would be honored later the performance. The show started fairly early but included a total of 25 songs over the course of an hour and a half, though only a single song encore. Most of the songs were played with the full band, though he did a few solos songs over the course of the night.

Setlist:
The Desert Babbler
Carousel
Kingdom of the Animals
Tree by the River
Grass Widows
Black Candle
Belated Promise Ring
Baby Center Stage
Monkeys Uptown
Such Great Heights (The Postal Service cover)
Sodom, South Georgia
Freebird [Tease]
Boy With a Coin
Lion's Mane
Waves of Galveston
Caught in the Briars
Sundown (Back in the Briars)
Jezebel
Grace for Saints and Ramblers
Passing Afternoon
Singers and the Endless Song
Lean Into the Light
Innocent Bones
Low Light Buddy of Mine
Your Fake Name Is Good Enough for Me
Encore:
Naked As We Came