#smulefest

Date: March 26, 2015

Venue: Public Works / San Francisco

Yes, this is the craziest lineup of talent you will likely ever see…however, I do appreciate the alliteration of Todd, Tony and T-Pain. Megan and I think they should actually tour together…the Triple Threat Tour or something similar. We’ll leave the actual name to them. Anyway…

SmuleFest was a free event to celebrate Smule, a karaoke app you can get on your phone, and all three of these artists have had success getting their fans to interact with the app. Heck, I even did a couple of duets with Todd and as a lot of you know, I simply don’t karaoke, but there was something sort of cool about doing it in my living room with my phone. Mostly this was a celebratory event for Smule’s employees but there were also free general admission tickets so the place was packed.

Tony kicked off the night and instead of having his whole band with him, he played solo and sounded fantastic. He had quite a few fans in the audience and definitely made some new ones from what I could tell. I love watching Tony perform, be it solo or with his band. He’s got tons of energy and sings and plays with incredible passion. I love his voice and whether he’s covering someone else’s song, which he did with Trouble, or singing his own tunes, he sounds great. His new album is my favorite of his and I highly encourage you to check it out if you have not done so already.

Todd took the stage next and did what he does best, entertain and draw everyone into his ridiculously positive energy. He had his amazing drummer Seth Faulk with him and the two of them put on a great show. Todd played and sang and jumped into the crowd and looked and sounded great doing all of it. I always love seeing Todd perform and it seemed like the crowd was really into it. I feel certain he made some new fans. He and Seth mesh so well together both musically and vocally and you can’t help but smile when they’re performing. Part of the SmuleFest included a contest related to Todd’s hit, Nintendo, and the winner was flown in and got the chance to sing with him on stage. That was pretty cool and she sounded great. Todd closed out his set by brining Tony back on stage and together with Seth they sang a cover I’ve seen them do many times, The Band’s The Weight. They sounded great and I think I liked it better with just the three of them, as opposed to having a lot of other musicians join in (like a couple of weeks ago at Off The Record). You can see most of the videos on my YouTube page.

After Todd’s set the stage was cleared and a DJ took control and then came T-Pain. And it was everything you could imagine. I honestly wasn’t sure if I knew any of his music but as it turns out, I actually know a lot of it. I stayed up front for the first few tunes then felt crushed by the crowd and had to escape to the back. He had so much energy and really put on a great show. He raps, he dances, he acts silly, and he thoroughly entertains. Most of the crowd was there to see him and they were definitely not disappointed. I had to leave before he finished but even from the back where I couldn’t see as well, I could still hear and he sounded great. And now I can say I’ve seen T-Pain live. I honestly never thought I would say that.