Short but excellent set by Jesse Sykes, accompanied by Phil Wandscher on guitar and Bill Herzog on bass, opening for Sunn O))) in a packed Élysée-Montmartre. Why this wasn't presented as The Sweet Hereafter is anyone's guess, since all the core members of the cult alt-country outfit are present on the stage, but the name matters very little.
Musically, the trio sits somewhere between Cowboy Junkies and Earth (Bill Herzog used to play with the seminal drone metal band), with Sykes' otherworldly vocals reminiscent of a cross between Marianne Faithful and PJ Harvey, if you can imagine such a thing. Their slow, mournful take on folk and country infused with psychedelia weaved a delicate sonic tapestry that was the perfect opener for the onslaught of distortion and feedback that was about to be unleashed by the evening's headliners.
