Recap The Magnetic Fields at Capitol Theater

A crowd of flannel-clad audiophiles, silver foxes, bespectacled middle-aged men, and their fashionable, twenty-something girlfriends were ushered (literally) into the ornate Capitol Theater Saturday for an adorably grudging double-set from The Magnetic Fields. "See if you can get the audience not to clap while I'm tuning" were leader Stephin Merritt's first remarks of the evening as he angrily jammed his finger into his ear. The band opened with "When I'm Out Of Town," originally recorded by one of Merritt's other bands, The 6ths. The Fields went on to play an intimate smorgasbord of numbers from across their discography, dipping into the albums Holiday, 69 Love Songs, I, and the better part of 2008's Distortion—just without the actual distortion. Because Merritt suffers from a hearing disorder, the Fields tour with an acoustic, drum-less chamber-pop setup.

Clad in a baseball cap, brown leather jacket, white dress shirt, khakis, and "cruel shoes made of specially tortured cows" (as he called them), Merritt didn't move much, other than to strum his bouzouki, and he defiantly plugged his fragile ears to drown out the roaring applause after every song. Between songs, he spoke like an eloquent Sam Elliott, displaying embittered class, maintaining absolute deadpan at all times, and addressing only his bandmate Claudia Gonson. Merritt broke that distance once, when a fan booed at an anecdote about Katie Holmes: "I didn't know they sold tickets to cows here… I guess it is America's dairyland," Merritt responded. Guitarist John Woo and Cellist Sam Davol played their parts with humble precision, keeping themselves out of the line of banter.

Shirley Simms, whose nasal delivery is all over 69 Love Songs and Distortion, took the lead on a handful of songs, including "No One Will Ever Love You," "California Girls," and "Drive On, Driver." The charming Gonson mostly stuck to her piano, but took the mic with an ethereal croon on classics like "Take Ecstacy With Me" and "Yeah! Oh Yeah!" The latter is a murderous duet with Merritt that ends with Gonson asking "Are you reaching for a knife?/Could you really kill your wife?" and Merritt howling "Yeah! Oh Yeah!" "The Nun's Litany" proved a highlight, as a straight-faced Merritt crooned: "I want to be a cobra dancer/with little Willy between my thighs." The pinnacle of the show was an arresting, humorless rendition of "Papa Was A Rodeo," which closed the first set.

As the band came back on stage for an encore, a fan screamed something that sounded like, "Good Burger!" A visibly annoyed Merritt responded: "Maybe we should go backstage again." The band then closed out the evening with "Three Way" and "Grand Canyon." Throughout, Merritt seemed determined not to have any fun, but that's exactly what brought out the songs' every quirk.