For the Sake of the Whole: With Child at Neurolux

When he played solo and called himself Unicorn Feather, Elijah Jensen might begin an evening picking out playful acoustic melodies to complete his bubbly, captivating lyrics. His songs could create better human beings out of his audience if their ears were at all focused. Then he could make the night really interesting with help from a fart-sound-making keychain funneled through distortion equipment. No matter what, Elijah would eventually supplement his music with dance steps or even call the crowd to join him in a dance party—especially on the eve of a rarely celebrated holiday like Leap Year.

By verse as well as attitude, the ever-adaptable Unicorn Feather could easily be confused with Shel Silverstein. Had the famous children’s poet been a regular sight at underground music events in Boise’s North End basements, he and Elijah would at least have plenty of important and highly creative ideas to discuss.

In early spring, Elijah’s friends Andrew and Otis joined him with base guitar and drums to form With Child. The new collaboration brings even more dynamism and edge to the stage and a greater neighborhood sense of camaraderie to this dark, smoky and often gloomy Neurolux.

It is always a joy to see friends working together for the sake of good music. It is a marvel more rare when—for the sake of good music—those individual musicians take care of each other with a constant dose of consideration. I have huge hope for a band when an individual artist’s potential for lasting significance multiplies upon adding collaborators. This not usually the case; adding more people does not always produce a greater influence. When artists go on to show how their delight in each other and their music reaches far beyond reasons of a growing fan base, then I have huge hope for music as a whole.

Now to apply the general statement above to this specific show. For some reason unexplained and possibly still unknown, Elijah’s electric guitar would not cooperate with his amp and thereby could not stay in tune. As this point of frustration continued on for some time (frustrating for the band, I imagine, though hardly to the audience. I hardly realized anything was at all problematic, assuming this was yet another eccentricity true to Unicorn Feather), his strings then proceeded to break. One by one, they snapped off. After losing the fifth string, Elijah put down his guitar. With Child would play their last song using only Andrew’s base, Otis’ drums and Elijah’s voice. In terms of impact, this change of plans was the best moment of the night.

Based on ococcasionally bizarre evenings of Unicorn Feather and this supportive quality of With Child, as mentioned earlier, the last song’s amazing execution should be no surprise. It began with an eloquent stream-of-consciousness build up, grim and also lovely. Though Elijah compared himself to an uptight slam poet bothered after a very bad day, he articulated the intro with impressive narrative. It brought proper attention to the edgiest With Child song in this Friday night lineup. As often happens, Elijah helped the crowd participate by joining us on the dance floor. Still on microphone with trusted bass and drums carrying him along as we moved and jumped and swayed along with him. With Andrew and Otis in control of the instrumentals, a first-time listener could believe the song was written for only bass guitar and drums.

This With Child story tells me that as their songs spark ideas on worldwide betterment and all things higher and deeper that really are possible, so do they act upon these human possibilities. And, as already stated, this gives me great hope.