Live: Rose Melberg @ Vacation Vinyl / Echo Curio, 10.27.09

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All photos by David Greenwald

You always hope your heroes are as you’d imagined them. Mysterious. Charisma to burn. Or, you know, nice. Rose Melberg, one of indie pop’s most talented icons, is the closest thing we’ve got to twee royalty (beyond being, of course, queen of my heart), but she rules with open arms. Watching her play a pair of far too brief sets at Vacation Vinyl and Echo Curio on Tuesday night was as quietly stunning as you’d expect from the shy-voiced singer and her lovelorn odes, but it was Rose herself that impressed me most. Whether joking with the packed, ironic sweatshirt-clad Echo Curio audience or offering words of appreciation when a drunken new fan approached her at her earlier record store set (which, guys, you seriously missed out on), Rose was every bit as earnest and charming as her music. But Ms. Melberg, do me one favor — come back before 2019 (and play some Softies jams)? That would be the nicest of all.