Last night we braved the receding flood waters to see the Iron & Wine show at the Moore. (Even though “We Braved the Receding Flood Waters” sounds more like a Sufjan Stevens song than an Iron & Wine one.)

I like the new album all right, but I was still taken aback to see Sam Beam fronting a band that at times swelled to nine musicians. Beam’s material has always had a dreamy, haunted quality, but they were tidy as well: simple acoustic folk songs, impeccably executed (even back in his lo-fi four-track days). It didn’t benefit from having accordion, pedal steel, four percussionists, and who knows what else slathered over every single song (save the one-song acoustic encore)–especially when plenty of the songs ended in a plodding four-minute jam. Last night I saw the future, and it was Iron & Wine turning into a rootsy jam band, and I weep for the rising generation.

On an entirely unrelated note. Hey, Sudan, where were the riots in 2005 when the Chicago Bears signed Muhsin Muhammad? A bear’s a bear, right? I’m just saying.

You know, for a trivia blog, this site hadn’t had a whole lot of trivia lately. I’ll try to fix that tomorrow.