It was a sad and beautiful world Monday when Sparklehorse played First Ave after a long absence from touring. Indie cult-hero Mark Linkous and band transfixed the crowd with a 50-minute set low on his trademark electronic experiments and entropic song forms, and high on sweet alt-country harmonies, animal-centric lyrics and blazing punkish feedback. In the house for Horse was "Queer as Folk" star Randy Harrison, in town for "The Glass Menagerie" at the Guthrie. Harrison said he was thrilled the band was scheduled on a Monday, his only night off, because he's loved the band's "haunting and surreal" sound ever since he went through "a big PJ Harvey phase" in college. (Harvey sings on the 1995 Sparklehorse classic "It's a Wonderful Life.") Warming up was Jesse Sykes and the Sweet Hereafter. What's with Sykes' habit of singing her "s" sounds as "sh," as in the lyric, "I wouldn't be shurprished if we never shing thish shong again?"
