first up was Matthew Gray, from one of my favorite local groups, Matthew and the Arrogant Sea. I love MATAS so much, i figured i'd like matthew as well, and i was right. pretty sure everything he played was non-band stuff (except maybe "o, jonathan"), but you can definitely tell where the majority of MATAS' sound comes from. he played a beautiful set full of haunting, sometimes spooky, sometimes quirky acoustic folk/pop. his performance was definitely enhanced by his accompanist, noodling on his electric guitar and providing fantastic backing vocals. really nice stuff. matthew was cool enough to spot me a copy of his demo cd, and there's some really cool stuff on there, too. check it out if you have a chance. cannot WAIT for the MATAS cd release party on october 25th.
next up was Chameleon Chamber Group. 4-piece "band": electric piano/synth (the great paul slavens), cello, violin, and EWI (electronic wind instrument, you noob). played mostly classical pieces, but slightly jazzed up, what wif the electronics and all. interesting, and very well done, but after a while i lost interest and headed out to the patio (in the end, it's still just classical music - not what i usually head out for).
sarah jaffe was up last, accompanied by robert gomez on geetar and kris youmans on cello. love sarah's voice, love the cello. as expected, my favorite was "two intangibles can't be had", which always gives me chills. enjoyed the set.
man, i tell you - dan's is a really hapnin place, with a veritable who's who of denton musicians parading thru there. really cool place. and you wouldn't believe what goes on in the parking lot.
