Christopher Pappas’s solo project Forest Fires is an organic incarnation of this preternaturally gifted musician. The show at TT the Bear’s on Tuesday, February 16th consisted of seven songs from Forest Fires’ debut album Hark! And Other Lost Transmissions. Backed by a full band, Pappas blended his bittersweet lyrics with master showmanship to build his venue into an atmosphere fitting for the music he plays: something familiar and accessible while also testing the audience’s willingness to open themselves to the implications itinerant in his music.
Pappas played a tight seven-song set showcasing Forest Fires’ range from the tender, lulling opener “Lost at Sea” to the show closer “The Dying Physicist”, a tongue-in-cheek anthem to quantum physics, foregone opportunities and squandered time. There’s a controlled grittiness in Forest Fires, something gleaned even in more upbeat tracks like “Sweet Tooth” and “Static Gloom.” In “Son Son (Son)”, a tender apology to an unborn child, Pappas’s voice wavers between seduction and guilt, enough so to make the audience suspend the knowledge supplied by Pappas himself, “This is about the son I never had, not one I abandoned.”
Throughout, what ties the music together is Pappas’s ability to experiment with variations on melody, theme and genre conventions. The result is ultimately catchy, alluring and accessible while maintaining an impish degree of challenge. Nowhere was this more apparent than in the song “Fooling Everybody, All of the Time,” a coy, catchy dirge about the ubiquitous need to be accepted that began with Pappas near-cooing into the microphone and ended with the proclamation, “There’s no song to sum up the way you feel.” The music captures the sense of ongoing loss and elation inherent in any innocuous moment. Forest Fires hints at complex ideas through pristine songs, music that cycles back to key concepts and chords alike. Ultimately, Forest Fires strives to expose the bittersweet revelation of everyday experience and the mark it leaves upon us.
–Meghan Guidry