C is for Concerts

Another great night of local music with an amped up opener, slowed down second act, and then SCAC to bring it home.

Starting off the night with tons of punk energy was Rotten Reputation. When lead Lola Marie would talk she had the sweetest bubbly voice, but when she started singing that disappeared and was replaced with guttural and raw vocals. She had an intro for each song, and one humorous intro was about a song about being catfished “Photoshop Tricked Me Again”

DBUK (which stands for Denver Broncos United Kingdom)was up next, as you can see above it’s comprised of all but two of SCAC. Rebecca Vera, Slim Cessna, Munly Munly, and Lord Dwight Pentacost had the room LOCKED, you could’ve heard a pin drop.

It’s really impressive to see them play so many varied instruments, I can’t even play one!

Tonight was filled with some real and funny moments. At the end of one of the songs Munly sat there for a little bit smiling and about to say something, finally he said to the audio guy “Sorry man I can’t hear my instrument at all, I’m a jack ass” “it’s not like it will help me play any better” Later on in the set he completely forgot how to play a song, and him and Slim worked through it on how to remember the chords. I loved it.

I’m not gonna lie, I was a little worried that they would play the same set tonight but Slim Cessna’s Auto Club quickly quelled that concern. There were some repeats, but it was mostly a show comprised of their older songs, so I was really happy.

The night before during the intro to “Jesus Is In My Body - My Body Has Let Me Down” during Munly’s intro he sang in a falsetto which made the overtone portion of it all the more haunting. Tonight however he only made it halfway through before he stopped “Uh, line?” he said as Slim turned to us “I was just telling the band how drunk Me and Munly are! We used to do it all the time, but now we’re old, and it’s hard!”

I didn’t make it to night three, But fun moments like that, and incredible music capped off a year of fantastic concerts in the most perfect way.

It was everything I’d hoped it would be.

Night one of SCAC’s 25th Anniversary shows at Globe Hall! Bills packed with local bands, and both nights following similar flows made for a great end to a concert filled year!

Starting off the night with tons of energy and was the rock trio Wake The Bat. They melded rap cadence lyrics with hard guitar riffs and pounding drums. Very reminiscent of Street Sweeper Social Club. These kids (litterally, according to their website they’re all 16) fucking rock it and earned a fan (probably quite a few) that night. They kicked off the night right.

Pale Sun was a band that I wasn’t able to see back at UMS, I like it when the stars align for me like that. Pale Sun slowed it way down with vocals and guitar saturated in reverb. At the time I thought the juxtaposition was harsh, but as night two would show me it was part of a theme.

I’ve been trying to recall how many times I’ve seen Slim Cessna’s Auto Club, and how many of those times were for New Year’s Eve. I remember distinctly the first time I saw them though, they were an opener for The Reverend Horton Heat at The Ogden and I’ve been hooked ever since. One of my favorite shows they did they performed my favorite album  “Always Say Please and Thank You” in it’s entirety.

This was an equally great show, as they took the stage in silver suits (for their silver anniversary) they played a good mix of their music but this night seemed to be heavier from their “Cipher” album.

About half way through they performed “He, Roger Williams” and came down onto the floor and kneeled down, and we did in the same in kind

A great first night

My first time at Globe Hall! It’s a cool smaller venue where on one side you have the concert hall portion and on the other the bar and places to eat some BBQ. I didn’t have any this time, but I’ll have other chances upcoming. And I can't ever go this long between concerts again, I was getting CRANKY! Anyway...

Starting off the night was local band 300 Days (a reference to the average amount of sunny days we get in CO) started off the night off right with their bluegrass/folk style. I loved the intros they had for their songs, they would tell us a little bit about the meaning or a funny anecdote. Both Nick Dunbar and Dave Solzberg are new fathers, and Mr. Dunbar was giving an intro to a new song that he had wrote about his son. A joke he made talking about him and Mr. Solzberg “yeah that’s right folks me and Dave are just a couple of DILF’s up here” bringing about some catcalls to which he responded “hey now it stands for Devoted Involved Loving Father” Ha!

I talked to fiddliest Melissa McGinley very briefly after their set, and she gave me one of their EP’s, even though I didn’t have any cash. Lucky for me it looks like they’re closing out the Tiny Library season, so I’ll pay them in kind then (if I don’t see them before)

The Dustbowl Revival packed in up on the stage at and came out roaring with “Call My Name” which is such a great song full of energy and is the perfect showcase of their combined talent and for anybody that hasn’t seen them before is a great taste of what’s to come.

Everything I said back in August holds true, and seeing them again reminds me of some of the little things they do that I love. I really like how they duck out of the way when someone has a solo. I’m pretty certain they did it back at the Levitt, but it was all the more noticeable here.

And true to my word, I bought their vinyl and got everyone to sign it, well except somehow I missed James. So I reckon I’ll just HAVE to see them AGAIN to fix it :P

This is probably the worst recap ever, and for that apologize. But what was really cool about tonight was that I was part of SOFAR in an official capacity as the artist liason! So if they needed help with anything or if something came up I helped the best I could, as such I didn’t take very good notes and the recaps are pretty terse.

Theresa Peterson who John Statz hinted she would be performing at this show back in August. She was great in her first SOFAR.

Next up was Xochitl... pronounced so-chee, she told us that it’s not a stage name, she didn’t pick it, and yes it’s real. Her and Andrew were on a SOFAR tour and CO was their last stop before heading home.

Andrew Castro brought Xochitl up for a couple songs. He hasn’t wanted to be part of a band and being an only child, just liked to play alone. To that end he utilized a loop station and for a couple songs started his accompaniment and built upon it so that he had a full band!

Back at Lost Lake! I probably got here earlier than I needed to, but it ended up working out for the best. While sitting at the bar flipping through my phone or whatever I was doing, and a dude ending up sitting next to me. "Happy Thursday!" as he raised his glass to me. "Dude" ended up being Joel Ansett. While talking I had mentioned that I've had an incredible streak of great openers (hey guess what it didn't end tonight either)

I quickly came to realize that not only is Joel Ansett a really nice guy, but his music follows his character in kind. Giving an intro to each folksy like song, in particular his song “Insincere” to which he didn’t speak all that favorably (from what I remember) but I thought it was catchy as all hell. 

Joel had a fun take on Eminem’s “Lose Yourself” to which he remarked after that he always has to fight passing out, which I definitely get as he barely had time to take a breath! In one of his earlier songs, when he wrapped it up he said that he had a pedal on the floor that was helping double up his voice, so not to worry, we’re not hearing things. I love those interactions!

One of his songs that really stood out to me was “Turn to Gold” It’s one of those songs that you didn’t know you needed in your life. I’m glad that he’s a local guy, I look forward to whenever his next show is.

I had listened to Double Sun on bandcamp earlier in the day, but to put it mildly it doesn’t even come close to preparing you for the harmonic cacophony we experienced. I loved every second of it. They started out the night each being on a bell or metallic bowl as a prelude to their set that took us through the seasons of the year.

Their performance packed in a lot of instruments flute, violin, guitar, drums, bass, keys, the aforementioned bells and bowls and even threw in some overtone singing for good measure during what they called Sound Painting, where one member assumes the position of director and they freestyle it (I felt a little bit of personal pride that I knew what overtone singing was before Jaime Beekman mentioned it) 

The guys from Dear Me, were in the crowd supporting their bandmate Jaime. Talked to them a little bit and mentioned that I had seen them back at UMS, 

Wrapping up the night was birthday boy Tommy Freed and the Sound and they started off the night “Big(ger)” (couldn’t resist that) they took said song and added to it by injecting some extra jam session (a trend they fortunately continued throughout the night) after he said that it felt really good “better than he thought” and almost threw up during it. I’m not sure why, but he definitely didn’t play like it.

During a moment of “self-indulgence” they performed a cover of Toto’s “Rosanna” he said that “That was fun, that was for me” I think it’s safe to say we got something out of it also, the guy next to me definitely did as he started jumping and screaming only a few bars in!

They ended the night with another fantastic cover, in the form of “She Came In Through The Bathroom Window” and absolutely nailed it. While I would’ve loved more, Tommy Freed was straight up and honest at the end of the song that was all they had in the set. I’ve mentioned how much I dislike the encore, so this was the perfect end to the night.

Traditionally on Halloween I make chili, watch scary movies, and hand out candy. This year I broke from the majority of that tradition, and went to a concert instead and I’m glad that I did! (I still made chili, and it turned out mighty tasty!) Similar to Friday night, it was fun to see the bands and some in the crowd dressed up for this show too. 

Jay Som started off the night. Going into the show I didn’t know anything about them, I’m glad that’s changed! I really liked how they would go on short jam sessions during their songs. I could be wrong about what was happening, but during one of the songs, Melina Duterte and her guitarist strummed a cord and then the bassist seemingly took that and looped/manipulated it (with the device the guitarist is on in the picture above) Again I’m not sure if that’s what happened, but damn it all it was sweet.

During their set it was asked if we could guess what they were dressed up as, a bunch of people yelled “JAY SOM!” Technically that was the right answer, but not the answer they wanted. It was a funny moment that tickled the band and had me laughing too. Fortunately Molly Rankin would later let us know they were dressed as U2... which makes a lot of sense after the fact, sorry I didn’t recognize it immediately!

Alvvays came out on stage dressed as Oompa Loompa  and as Scott Carney correctly stated deserved a trophy! Molly Rankin said something along the lines of since it was their first time in CO that they should make an entrance!  

Their costumes were just as good as their set, supplemented with the colorful abstract designs projected on the screen behind them. I like it when bands do that, it adds another layer to the experience. And that’s compounded by the fact that they sounded great all night. Playing a string of songs of their new album Antisocialites surrounded by songs of their debut album as well rounded out the night well. They even treated us by playing some of the Oompa Loompa song! 

Wildermiss had their Lost With You EP release show tonight! And they brought along with them some great acts all dressed in costume for Halloween

Up first was The Solid Ocean, their website says they’re power pop and i think that’s a pretty good description. A set of fun, upbeat, dance-able music ripe with catchy lyrics and slick guitar riffs. 

While Joey Lowery was introducing the band he joked about not what would happen if you gave Nathan Johnson on keys a glass of water.

Towards the end of their set, Joey Lowery said we’re gonna jam out a little bit and each member got a chance to stretch their muscles. No doubt I’ll stumble across them again in the future, and I look forward to it.

“Welcome to the Scarimer Lounge!” as lead Kevin Johnston from The Bright Silence kicked off their set, with a bit that wasn’t practiced... “but the rest of the set definitely was” 

One of my highlights from UMS, I was really excited to see them again. They kicked off with “Oleana” as they did at UMS and went rapid fire through songs just like it was a UMS show (I just typed UMS a lot) what set this set apart was Kevin’s interaction with the crowd. Beginning with his punderful intro and periodically talking in a spoooooky voice.

They wrapped up with a cover of Oingo Boingo’s “Dead Man’s Party” talking to Kevin afterward he mentioned that it’s a difficult song to play, in that the meter of the song changes throughout, but you wouldn’t have known it, they killed it! You can watch it (with even more puns!) Here!

It’s been a lot of fun to see Wildermiss throughout the year starting back in February and in April, and how they’ve added little flourishes and refined songs along the way. Most notably in the extended intro to “Keep It Simple”

There’s one song they perform and I wish I knew the name of it and how to describe it better but first heard back in Feb (I don’t remember if they played in in April) but Emma hits a note and then the reverb she activates elevates the note. I remember the first time I heard that song performed I thought to myself “Hotdamn this is good shit”

For their encore they performed (another song I don’t know the same of, sorry) where Emma loops her voice and then they perform along with it. It was a great song to end the night with.

They were kind enough to sign the EP, I was surprised to find that as part of the mentioned first 100 we’d get an extra treat, and it turned out to be a “Polaroid” that they had already signed!

Back in New Orleans for an evening of Parkway Po’ Boys, music, pool and laundry, mostly in that order!

Friend of a friend was able to get tickets to see The xx at Champions Square, which was a really cool outdoor venue. One side you have the stage...

and then if you turn around there’s The Superdome...

Pretty Cool! The xx were good, it was a little funny to see them as back home they were meant to play Red Rocks, but it got snowed out and they relocated the show to the 1st Bank Center. They had giant rotating mirrored panels that threw lights all around. Wasn’t able to catch the opener however.

Later on in the evening we hit up Frenchman St and saw Bon Bon Vivant at a place called Bamboula’s. They were a lot of fun and the epitome of what I love about Frenchman.

Next popped down the street to see Jumbo Shrimp they were also great and another reason I love Frenchman and why I wish I knew how to play an instrument.

The Tiny Library Concert Series kicked off it’s third season by being completely sold out! And it was a great way to start of the season.

Taarka was the only act of the evening to our benefit as we got to spend the full 2+ hours listening to their folky gypsy jazz. I mentioned it last season that the artists didn’t really need mics/speakers... and tonight they didn’t, and you could still hear them clear as day. To that point and something else I’ve said before about Tiny Library and the SOFAR shows, David Tiller made a comment about how nice it was to play completely unplugged and not have to compete with clanking bottle and people talking. Yup!

As it typically goes, they were able to interact with us a lot (as we know I LOVE) David Tiller was playing the octave mandolin which apparently plays an octave lower than a normal mandolin and is also, I guess, difficult to keep in tune. He made a joke that someone that’s been playing it for 30 years has been tuning it for 10. Throughout the night he would be tuning it and talking about the next song that they were going to play. At one point in the night they were about to jump into a song and he had to stop it a few notes in so he could tune.

Watching David Tiller and his wife Enion Pelta-Tiller interact was a treat. Speaking as a couple clearly that’s been together for a while and speaking through riddle and side-mouthed as they discussed which song to play next was really endearing.

Rounding out the band was Troy Roby on upright bass and Kevin Matthews on drums (to which Mr. Tiller paid a pretty good compliment too, saying that he couldn’t imagine a better person to accompany them on this acoustic set since he would need to play quieter and did it effortlessly)

A great way to kick off the season.

A night of some good ol’ rock-n-roll started off with the duo Local H, who being the only support got to play for good 45 minutes or so, and I enjoyed every minute of it.

Singer Scott Lucas and drummer Ryan Harding hit us rapid fire for the whole set. Lucas would affect his guitar with different petals and the result would dramatically change the sound of his guitar adding some grit to match his rockin voice. Harding was a lot of fun to watch on drums as he pounded away. 

I think it was a medley of a few songs but one definitely was a rocked out version of Chicago’s 25 or 6 to 4. At one point Scott Lucas yelled out to us “Come on it’s fucking rock show! You deserve it!” Damn straight

A lot of good shit happened in this set... one things that drives me a little crazy is when bands wait for a long time or until the end of their set to announce who they are. Vaden Todd Lewis however, walked out on stage and said to us “We’re a band called the Toadies we’ve got a new record out, we’re gonna sprinkle in some of that with old and hopefully have a good time.” I know I did.

Lewis still sounds EXACTLY the same as the first time I heard “Possum Kingdom” his voice really got to shine in a incredible cover of “I Put a Spell on You” in which Lewis stepped away from the guitar and brought Scott Lucas back up on stage.

Periodically throughout the performance I noticed guitarist Clark Vogeler staring at somebody in the crowd and telling them something or talking to their stage hand emphatically. Which I can only assume were the two idiots up front that tried to pick a fight with someone (anyone) around them. During the encore, this resulted in Lewis saying “dude if you guys are gonna be assholes then just leave” They of course didn’t leave on their own omission, but were escorted out, prompting him to say “They’re gonna miss this... so I’m gonna wait a second” and after they were gone “alright here we go” 

I had bought tickets for this show MONTHS ago, and at the time they hadn’t announced who the opener was. About a week before the show I looked it up again and was pretty excited to see it was Other Worlds! Which made me look forward to this show even more! A much shorter set than back in April but no less just as rockin’. It’s exciting that the large crowd got to see this local band, maybe for the first time, and hopefully they earned some new fans.

The Australian lo-fi psychedelic rockers King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard had probably one of the fastest setups (which they did themselves) outside of UMS I’d ever seen, and as part of the sound test they all played together for maybe 20-30 seconds which was pretty unique... and then they disappeared for nearly 30 minutes which was a bummer.

However, their high energy nonstop psychedelic sonic journey they took us on made up for the wait. I’ve never seen so much crowd surfing, and the whole lower floor looked like a giant cauldron churning people all about. 

I loved the use of the harmonica from these guys, whatever effect Ambrose Kenny Smith used on it made it sound like a freight train coming down the tracks. For a song or two Stu Mackenzie busted out a flute! What you can’t really see is that they have two sets of drums pounding away all night. Similarly to Thundercat, this was a stage stuffed (more literally) with talent and rockers who barely take breaks between songs, and there was no phony encore! They just kept rolln’ and played their hearts out.

My first official show at Syntax! And it was a night dripping with good music and wonderful reverb, which I absolutely devoured all night. Each set was around 30 minutes. I ended up running into Matt Rossi the next night as I went back to take the above picture (I had forgotten the previous night) I had told him I was so glad I came but was absolutely exhausted by the end. “Dude everybody was” he responded, and let me know the show structure was set that way because of it. But that didn’t take away from a second night of fantastic music.

First up was Yesol, who played a harp that was accented by loops and beats that filled out her ethereal singing. She mentioned that one of her songs was a Roy Orbison cover, I didn’t catch which one it was, but nestled in with her original songs it blended well.

Next up was Florea with Megan Fong singing with her smokey voice on guitar,  Alex Ferreira banging away on the drums and  Eli Saragoussi strumming away on the upright bass they put on a set that had some good ol’ American feel to it. One of the songs they performed was called “Delirium” which is about New Orleans, it couldn’t have been in a better setting as Syntax reminds me so much of d.b.a. on Frenchman Street

I was happy that Happy Abandon started with “Severed Seam” again as I think (and told all of them) that it’s a prefect intro to the band. Their “louder” show was equally as great, Peter swapped his acoustic guitar for an electric and Jake took control of a laptop that added in some layers of accompaniment. (which on the second song he loaded in the wrong track and they had to start the song over, I love real moments like that)

Another song that made the cut for tonight was “Stop Taking Care of Me” I was really glad they played it again, I really latched onto it at SOFAR. And so did the guy somewhere behind me tonight as he said “fuck yeah” after. Peter told us a little about the song but was intentionally being vague about the true meaning. Talking to him after the show, the meaning brings to mind another favorite song of mine “I Don’t Have Anything” by VAST. I’m also purposefully being vague, as one should pull from both of those songs what they need from it.

Imagine how fortunate I felt that by coming to see Happy Abandon in turn I got to see a band who I was bummed I couldn’t see at UMS, headliner Tyto Alba celebrating the release of their video for “The Hunger” 

Up on stage with her powerful voice was Melanie Steinway, Matt Rossi (guitar) who for a song swapped with Danny Dimarchi (bass) and keeping the beat in the back, Andrew Beir. As I mentioned earlier, there set also had the perfect amount of reverb, and I loved every second of it. 

Check out the video! Syntax even makes an appearance!

This was a really cool night. Got to come and hang out at beautiful house, listen to beautiful music, and hang out with some beautiful people. And it was all for a great cause as SOFAR and Amnesty International teamed up to help refugees worldwide. The numbers for the day were pretty staggering, 1000 musicians performing 300 concerts in 60 countries raised upwards of $250,000!!

Starting the night was the guys from Chapel Hill, NC, Happy Abandon Being their first time performing in CO they said they couldn’t think of a better way to do it than at a SOFAR show, and I couldn’t agree more. Peter (on lead vocals) expounded that and said he loves that they didn’t have to play so loud “I worked damn on these lyrics and nobody can hear them in a “normal” setting”

They started off the evening with “Severed Seams” which has a nice soft instrumental intro that slowly builds until Justin (bass) and Jake (drums) join in on singing a powerful note, that in a quiet setting like we were in made it all the more intense.

One of the comments Peter made was that our mountains were so much better than their’s in NC. At one point I had family in from NC, and one of her comments was that the mountains weren’t all that big or impressive (which as a native I took offense too) she later realized her error. But it was all the more validating for Peter to confirm it.

They mentioned that they had a show at Syntax Physic Opera the next night, I told them I’d do my best to make it. (Spoilers: I Did)

Next up was the only local act of the night in the form of Rob Drabkin. He said in the setting it felt like we were all at camp ( what with our blankets and camping chairs, and the big trees surrounding us, and what you can’t see in the picture were a couple firepits) couple that with the brisk fall weather and he was right on point.

A fun story he told was about his first show being a recital at Swallow Hill, apparently there was a guy there that really liked Rob’s performance as he had emailed him asking if he would perform at his upcoming proposal to his girlfriend. She would end up saying no (because they had only been together a couple weeks or something) but she did in turn email Rob asking him out!

One of the songs he performed for us was a song that he had previously done at a SOFAR, at the time it was a fairly new song he was working on. That song was “Someday” and it’s hit over a million plays on Spotify!

He’s headlining a show at The Bluebird coming up in January that I’ll definitely be at. After the show I was talking to him and asked who his support was, which he hasn’t figured out yet, but he asked who I think he should get. I told him I am in no position to tell him that... but in hindsight I should’ve said Josh Dillard or something.

Wrapping up the evening was the NYC duo Heartland Nomads. This was also their first show in CO, and they had been looking forward to this show for months! 

Chi is blurry in the picture above, but it pretty accurately captures her energy. She mentioned that she doesn’t usually sound “like this” as she was just coming off pneumonia AND strep... but yeah you wouldn’t even have known unless she mentioned something. 

Joined “on stage” by her bandmate and S.O. Greg, their set basically told the journey they’ve traveled together. They met at the non-profit Liberty in North Korea and Chi “forced” Grag into the band since he played the guitar and Chi doesn’t play an instrument, but she sure can sing and write a good song. One of those songs she wrote was about Greg, it’s called “Hell or High Water”

I was fortunate enough to be able to come early and be able to hang out with all these great people. And collectively we helped a good cause which made the night all the more special.

Back for night two of shows at the Ogden Theatre!

Starting the night off was DJ PBDY he mixed mostly ethereal soundscape sprinkled with dialogue samples. Looking into him further it looks like he’s one half of JP Moregun, I bet that would be a trip to see.

Headliner Thundercat had a stage full of talent that absolutely destroyed their instruments, and each got their moment to shine. It reminded me of Robert Randolph and the Family Band in that these guys are damn machines and barely stopped for nearly two hours. 

At numerous points throughout the marathon set, I found myself torn between who to watch! And the night was full of moments like that, where they would take what I think are average length songs and expand them to wonderful lengths.

I’m not sure I’ve ever seen anybody shred the bass like Thundercat did, if his fingers moved any faster on the bass (which he could manipulate the sound with the pad next to him) it might have caught fire.

One of those types of shows that you leave just absolutely exhausted

Night one of an Ogden Theatre double header!

Kicking off the night was LPX (a.k.a. Lizzy Plapinger of MS MR) with a ton of energy packed into her short set, she never stopped moving around on the stage. You can see some of that energy in the photo, as she twirls her head around! She has a incredible strong voice little bit of rasp to it. They had a high energy cover of Le Tigre’s Deceptacon, which fit into the rest of the set nicely. Only bummer was how incredibly short it was!

The rock-n-roll kept on rolling with the ladies of Haim. I think it was maybe the second song where they perform “Don’t Save Me” I joked with my friend Jill that I was gonna head out after they wrapped up the song, as it was maybe the song I looked forward to the most. Of course I didn’t leave, but it I had then I would’ve missed a damn good night. 

They interacted with the us a lot, which I (and everyone else) ate up. At one point somebody threw a bag with some joints on stage, so stage man Chip came up and cleaned it all up, to which bassist Este accused him of stealing all of them for himself. Another fun moment (one of many) with Este was during the beginning of their cover to “That Don’t Impress Me Much” when she was supposed to have come in with the lyrics she instead blurted out that she had forgotten the words.

Periodically throughout the night she would sit down on a bar stool, I never thought anything of it until she mentioned that occasionally she has to do it due to her type 1 diabetes, but that it in no way should make us think she wasn’t up there with all her heart. I’m gonna go out on a limb and assume nobody thought that in the first place!

As the show was winding down, Danielle said that if we all get real pumped up that Este would zip up her skirt and dance get down one more time. Este stayed up on stage and danced, Danielle came down into the lower level crowd, and Alana must’ve hauled ass because all of a sudden she was upstairs!

Great night of music from some kick ass women.

It was pretty warm out all day leading up to the show, but by showtime it was absolutely perfect weather, for what would turn out to be a evening of great music.

Up first was local band Treehouse Sanctum who’s folky/Americana started the night off rapid fire going through a chunk of their songs. They had fair amount of instruments on stage to begin with including both and acoustic and electric guitar, bass, keys, drums, and trumpet. Later on in their set they would bring on an accordion player, and Dewayne the trumpeter swapped out for a harmonica.

A couple stand-out songs were “Pilot & Crew” a song about WWII, which had a nice touch of starting with a few bars of “Taps” and put their talent in full display. Speaking of talent, drummer Andrew wrote a song called “shabah” which is Hebrew for captivity (don’t give me too much credit I had to look up how to spell it) was a great instrumental song that he jumped up to keys to perform, Dewayne played a muted trumpet and one of their friends replaced Andrew on drums.

I had first heard of Humming House from another Nashville band *repeat repeat on their podcast (podcast) when they had Josh and Justin on the show back in May. Typically I’ll look up the bands they have on, but for whatever reason didn’t this time. (I must’ve been super busy with work, which is where i listen) A handful of months go by and here I am sitting on the lawn as Andy Thomas introduces them, and it kicks on a light that I’ve heard their name before!? So I look up past episodes, and wouldn’t you know it there they were! So what I failed to do months ago, was rectified in the best way possible… hearing them live!

On stage with keys, fiddle, mandolin, bass (upright one too), guitar and drums we got a great show of folk/Americana full of energy and soul and at some points feeling like a good ol’ hootenanny. A standout song for me was “I Want It All” which is a track off their forthcoming album Companion (To be clear though, there was a lot of a great songs)

One of the funniest parts of the night happened during the stage banter in which Justin asked if this was our first time at the Levitt, which brought about a smattering of applause. Then I can’t remember if it was before the next song or a couple after, Josh asks that the same question. To which Bobby says “Dude, Justin JUST asked that!’ Josh would then say “Sorry y’all I Don’t get to talk much on stage so I usually repeat what i heard last.” After the song ended Josh jokingly asked again if this was our first time at the Levitt, I was in stitches.

Had the opportunity to talk to them for a little bit afterward at the merch booth, where they were generous enough to sign their previous album for me.

Fantastic music by great people.

So this ended up kinda being a SOFAR full circle show... but I’ll come back to that.

Up first was an artist I wanted to see back at UMS, so I was pretty excited to see CRL CRRLL (pronounced Carl Carrell) (http://crlcrrll.com/) on the list. CRL sitting on the left has a great R&B tenor voice augmented by the different beats, loops, and samples he manipulates with the keys and synth to top it off he had to his left to a drummer to accent the beat. In between songs he had a loop of bird songs that created the feel of making his set feel as one continuous song.

What made this come full circle, was back at SOFAR in March, Other Worlds mentioned they had a show at Lairmer Lounge in April. I was already locked into wanting to go, but when Brandy incentivized that she would give tickets to the next SOFAR if we went to their next concert it solidified my decision to go further. The two opening acts of course were The Velveteers and Larry Nix (and the Killer Gents)

The Velveteers ran into audio issues but Demi and John Demitro made the best of if. Demi still thrashed the hell out of her guitar for the first and last songs of their set. John stepped aside for the middle two songs, where they slowed it down and Demi had the opportunity to show the softer side of her voice. Rightfully they ramped it back up for their final song “Death Hex” and the small crowd of 60 or so got to see their might.

Capping off the night Larry Nix went sans mic for his set, and so we got to hear his soulful country baritone voice in it’s most pure form. His interaction with people immediately in front of him, yelling at the loud motorcycle outside the window, or telling the golden retriever wandering around during the evening was stealing the show, showcased his charisma. During his song “Ruins of the 1980's Broken Hearted Club“ one of the lyrics talks about meeting his 2nd wife at a show and how he could meet his 3rd and 4th, while pointing to the ladies up front and then looking back stage and pantomiming that maybe that won’t be the case tonight.

Gained a new artist I enjoy in CRL CRRLL, and got to see artists I already did in The Velveteers and Larry Nix at another great SOFAR.