Finally! After more than two years of missing chances to see Peasant perform (view the original EF post on Peasant from Feb ‘06) our paths finally crossed at Pianos last Tuesday night. The songs were as perfect, imperfect, beautiful, and moving as I expected - even through some fairly annoying technical difficulties, which Damien DeRose handled like a pro.

Before the show I mentioned to him that it was his song “Icy Deep” that first grabbed my attention and by the second song of his set he was playing that very song… a moment that felt less forced, and more “mine”, than any request I’ve ever made. Peasant’s songs have always had a degree of this kind of moony privacy emanating from them; in person this dreamy quality is significantly escalated and I was left feeling more like everyone in the room were all just a bunch of friends seated around a bonfire in Bucks County, PA rather than stuck in a smelly room in the Lower East Side. If you’re a fan of Bon Iver or Iron & Wine, you must hear Peasant. Check out more photos and MP3s below.

Listen:
“Exposure”
“We’re Good”
“Icy Deep”

Visit Peasant on MySpace.