Cafe du Nord
San Francisco, CA
23 March 2007

Jangly, poppy fun. The kind of jangly where you could swear there’s a tambourine in there somewhere even when there isn’t.

With his pleasantly nasally voice, Michael Nau presents an utterly carefree, jovial Dylan. A Dylan perfectly content singing about circus composers and sunbeams.

Unfortunately, about six songs into their set, Page France seemed to lose steam, settling into a mid-tempo monotony of trumpet-tinged ballads and desultory numbers about being stoned (“Everybody Knows”). And they started off so strong…

Their night ended with what was clearly a crowd-favorite: “Chariot”, and yet the band couldn’t seem to muster up even a fraction of their fans’ enthusiasm. Perhaps they’ve simply played it too many times, but one would hope they’d still give it a good ol’ jangly college try.

And yet, when all is said and done, I hold firm to the belief that I’ve merely caught Page France on a bad night. Based on how things first started off, it’s clear that they can put on a good show. For this reason alone, there will certainly be a next time.