More Seattle Music – Tiny Vipers

Jesy Fortino goes by band name Tiny Vipers, a unique and curious name to match an equally unique and curious sound. Watching Tiny Vipers at Triple Door last night, who is older (24ish) than she appears – but clearly wise beyond her years – was a pretty unique experience. OK, I’m done with the word unique already (almost). But you’d have to see her to get it. Her music, is, well, difficult to classify (aka unique). It’s intense, beautiful, folk, acoustic, moody, deep, dark, thoughtful, deliberate, intense, and soft all the same. Her voice is beautiful and rich, folky and difficult to pinpoint. Which is exactly what she is as an artist – difficult to fully grasp, difficult to pinpoint. Her guitar-picking may sound simple and bare, but it’s really much more deliberate and complex if you properly tune in. She also has perfect ‘pitch’, a very rare talent at that. She’ll properly draw you in, engage you without doubt. Her lyrics are stories(?), they’re hard to decipher, let alone follow, but this is a side factor when it comes to Tiny Vipers. What she has going on is a lot deeper and textured than can be defined by the words she’s singing.

There is no statement Tiny Vipers is trying to make. But there’s something about her music, her presence, that makes a statement all the same. There is no pretense in who she is, she delivers a raw, but soft and gentle, performance. She’s on stage, not there to please anyone – in fact one gets the feeling it wouldn’t matter if she were playing all alone in an empty apartment, or in front of thousands of folks (though one would question if she’d ever wish to go down this path, she seems the kind who would quietly allude to remaining just under the radar, or under no radar at all). She’d still deliver the same performance, wholely consumed in her art, her work, which in many ways makes her the untouchable, powerful and mysterious artist she is.

Triple Door’s acoustics and sound did justice to Fortino’s performance. It was a thoughtful show, a contemplative one from the audience’ perspective, and a very enjoyable and real experience at that.

This kid is raw talent. Check out the EP ‘Hands Across the Void’ (Subpop, 2007) for a glimpse into the deep and complex soul of Tiny Vipers. And to get an idea of Fortino live, pick up the DVD series ‘Burn to Shine’, Seattle WA edition – one of filmmaker Christoff Green and ex-Fugazi drummer Brendan Canty’s documentary series that captures live performances of favorite (in this case, Benjamin Gibbard’s – Death Cab for Cutie, The Postal Service) local Seattle bands in a unique and intimate setting – a house that is on the verge of being demolished.