Sunday, December 2, 2007

12/1/07 - Lamar Murphy, The Campaign, Great Raven, Ryan Parker

well you're on a bridge to nowhere and you;re gettin there fast, put it in the past, put it in the past. if this is a race then i hope you come last, youre on a bridge to nowhere and youre gettin there fast...

another great night at club dada for me. i tell ya, amanda as co-owner there has been teh best thing that couldve happened to me, i've had so many good nights there since she's taken over the booking, it's incredible. she definitely knows what she's doin

and hey! i was actually not alone tonight!! DP decided to venture out finally. so nice to have company along!

here i was so worried that i was gonna be persona non grata at dada (whoa!) cuz of the crappy (meaning negative) review i wrote last week, but amanda was actually HAPPY that i had written it, despite the fact that she was the one that booked the crappiness. man that gal's got the right stuff - honesty, integrity, passion. if only everyone in the Dd music scene had what she had, it'd be a different story 'round here. she is the greatest.

it was a bluesy bluesy night at dada, starting with Ryan Parker, and thankfully it wasn;t just him and his geetar - he had a bass player and drummer with him. this guy was perty good. nice voice. half the time he played an electric geetar, half the time an acoustic, sometimes i heard dave matthews, sometimes SRV. have to say, sounded a tad repetitive after a while, same old bluesy riffs/melodies. also, a bit too cheery and love dovey maybe (i'm a bit jaded on the whole true-love bullshit right now). some really nice guitar work and some nice bass work, too. lots of talent on the stage, just need to mix it up a bit, and stop talkin aboot yer lovely wife. why does that piss me off so much? well it dont take sherlock holmes to figure that out.

next up was RUMANDCOKE, and it was delicious. well mebbe not, but it did the trick anyways.

after that was Great Raven, a last-minute fill-in. i had seen these guys once before at the cavern, and didnt really connect, but tonight was different. at the cavern, i swear teh lead sanger spent 90% of his time at the keys, over-emoting, but tonight, he spent 90% of his time on teh geetar, and it was night and day. these guys kicked my ass. still in the bluesy pop vein of the evening, but they rocked the joint out. 5-man band, with keys. DP's favorite band of the evening. they still seem to be obsessed with wearing funky hip headgear, but tonight i forgave them for it. they didnt seem to be selling a cd, and didnt stick around afterwards to chat. oh well - next time. i will definitely see them again.

some decent scenery there, tonight, to keep DP happy. (ok, me too)

third was the campaign, from fort worth. these guys were fantastic. im sorry, teh myspace page shows three guys, but i seem to remember 4 of them up there. mebbe i was seeing double. have to ask DP. lead was definitely on keys, pounding away, i remember that much. great bluesy piano pop sorta stuff. amanda says she heard squeeze (black coffee in bed) - yes, thats a great comparison (why cant i come up with that stuff? shee-ut). did a cover of billy joel's movin out, and it fit perfectly in their set, if that tells you anything. great keybd work, i like that a lot. dug the lead vocals. got me noddin my head like a bobblehead, i can tell you. im sorry, im very tired. very talented group. would love to see again. got a free cd from 'em.

checked out the scene at kettle art a couple doors down. some really nice stuff in there, i thot. amanda dragged me over to meet frank, etc. such nice people. omigod if i had life to do over agin i think i would surround myself with artsy types with noserings and tats and mohawks and such. sweet baby jesus, can i have a do-over??

last was Lamar Murphy, from tennessee. omigod, the place absolutely cleared out before these guys started. i felt so bad for them - DP and me literally the only only ones left, besides employees. anyways, they were pretty good- vocals a bit unusual, not exactly mainstream melodies - more complex than most. i really dont know who to compare them to - modest mouse, maybe? 4-man band, but one dude only played the tambourine and shaker, and did backup vocals that you couldnt hear. as DP said, if times got hard, he'd be the first to go. sorry, that's mean. these guys were definitely talented, but in more of a headphone-listenin way, and not a live rock show way, knowwhatimean? i think they cut their set pretty short, bein as how there was no one there.

last but not least: pizza at zinis - you know it.

No comments: