5/15/10 - Nico Vega, Red Leaves, Ella Minnow

...at Hailey's. Knuckles came with, since Nico Vega met the Knuckles Criteria: hard(ish) rock, hot lead singer (female).

Ella Minnow (Denton). You know I loves me some Ella Minnow, and this show was no exception. My iphone notes: "Suddenly added 3 female singers, one wif hands planted firmly in pockets, one oh-so-sexy wif holes in her pantyhose, one wif hands planted firmly at her sides, all of them looking horribly uncomfortable, but doing a nice job. Love this band. Jeezus Christ. Fuckin orgasmic. So in love. "Red Leaves (Austin). They're billed as an experimental pop band, but i saw nothing experimental, 'cept for the fact that they kept switching out lead singing duties 'tween the dude and the gal and the drummer, which doesn't quite meet my criteria for "experimental". Perty good, tho not overly compelling to me. Bass player workin extry hard to sell it. Nico Vega (LA). Outrageous, high-energy, ass-kicking. Really put it all out there. Whirling dervish lead, sometimes heard Janis, sometimes heard Bjork. Knuckles says maybe his fav band ever. Drummer wore ripped black t-shirt last seen in Flashdance. Guitar player wore Hendrix curls & eye makeup. Awesome stuff.

8/21/09 - Ella Minnow, Daniel Folmer, Big Round Spectacles

...at Hailey's. solo.

Big Round Spectacles was up first. one dude on keyboards, sometimes wif harmonica. some pleasant little ditties, pretty standard stuff, fairly enjoyable, nothing overly compelling. voice was on-pitch at least, if not a little reedy. piano-playing was a touch inconsistent - wrong notes, tempo problems, etc. - which is kind of a handicap when that's the only instrument being played. still, it was entertaining enough that I watched the whole set, so...

Daniel Folmer was up next, accompanied by a bass player and drummer. I was pretty impressed with Daniel the first time I saw him, when he played a mostly-acoustic set at Dan's, but not as impressed the second time. Last night? Not a good night. Something was missing - he faced sideways, never looked at the audience, never smiled, no banter (except when he was castigating all the people at the bar who wouldn't come over and listen), and it just seemed like he was completely half-assin' it all set. Didn't see any of the emotion or passion that I remember from the first set at Dan's. Not sure what to make of it - maybe just an off night? (Pointless side note - the drummer reminded me of Kevin, Rod's brother in Hot Rod. Told you it was pointless).

Ella Minnow headlined, and holy shite, this band is phenomenal. I officially Fell In Love with Ella Minnow last night. Seen them a couple times before, and my appreciation of their talent grows every time. Incredible voice on the lead, with an amazing range - great lower register, plus a sometimes-shouty, growling, spoken-wordy-type style, plus a beautiful falsetto, and he flies across the whole range with incredible ease. And what an amazing amount of energy and passion he brings to the set - he is a sight to behold. And the songwriting - dear gawd, the songs! Whoever writes this stuff is a freakin' genius. Most songs are (relatively) long and somewhat complex, with multiple tempo changes, time-signature changes, and even genre-changes, all within one song (please don't get the impression that these are pretentious art-rock tunes or anything, cuz they're not - they flat-out rock!). Love that kind of creativity & uniqueness. Even when they stopped down and played a more-conventional alt-countryish tune, they managed to inject it with enough style, energy, and funkiness to make it unique. just an unbelievable set. definitely vaulted them near the top of my 'favorite local band' list. said they were working on a new album - can't wait for that. seriously, folks - check out this band - you will not be sorry.

8/15/08 - Ella Minnow, Bee vs. Moth, Timeline Post, Sean Kirkpatrick

headed out to hailey's, mainly to hear sean k, but it turned out to be a pretty good night overall.

sean kirkpatrick - seen him more times than i can count, and he slays me every time. he's just one of those songwriters that writes song after song that absolutely resonate with me. would love to know who he listens to - pretty sure i'd love it. his set list is definitely transitioning from first album material to a bunch of new stuff, which is all incredible. (you can hear some of the new material on the crazy jeff show page or the gutterth page, and i suggest you do). did a beautiful amy winehouse cover. i've said it before - sean is one of the very few artists whose covers i enjoy, cuz he does such a great job of making them his own. heard 'life without chocolate' live for the first time - one of my favorites from his album. an outstanding set. sean will be performing with his full band at club dada on the 28th - check it out. timeline post - 2nd time to see these guys - liked it much better this time. 6-man band - 4 guitars, keys and drums. some outstanding, dreamy, wall-of-sound guitar pop (didn't hear the keys too much). only problem - music that strong needs some kick-yer-ass vocals to stand above it, and the lead just doesn't have that kind of voice. probably works fine on a recording, but live, his vocals just got drowned out on every song. can't help but think that some beefy vocals would kick it up a notch. really dug the set, tho. bee vs. moth - um, no thanks. not a fan of jazz. cornet, bari sax, guitar, bass (sometimes upright), drums. seemed like they were good at it, but i just don't dig that stuff. ella minnow - holy shit, ella minnow kicked my ass. totally different take on them vs. the first time i saw 'em. songs kinda all over the map - some early-radioheadish stuff, some bluesy numbers, some 4/4 downbeat-happy songs, some wall of sound anthemic rock, some instrumentals - and all of it was fantastic. lead reminded me of stephen duncan (of chemistry set "fame"), except on speed. lead vox strong (great falsetto), if not exactly conventional (sometimes he reminded me of squiggy from laverne and shirley), but it worked. super-high energy, too - both the lead and the (cape-wearing) key/sax-player were spazzes, injecting the show with tons of energy. man, i loved it. can't wait to see 'em again. (soory for the crappy pic)

4/16/08 - Ella Minnow, Siberian, RTB2, Here In Arms

here's a shorthand version of my trip report - i'll fill in the rest later (or maybe i won't):

went to hailey's on wednesday night (ya, flyin solo), since i'll be out of town this weekend - gotta feed the beast, you know.

short people EVERWHERE. nice and squishy female ones, too. mmmmm...
played everbody's favorite game, 'Guess Who's the Lead Singer's Girlfriend'. i won.

Here, In Arms - 4-man. outstanding bluesy folky rock, great voice on lead. crowd-pleasing, bluesy rockin tunes. would definitely like to hear again.

RTB2 - 2nd time to see - one dude wif electric guitar, plus drums. good bluesy sorta guitar rock. this was a case where i could tell the dude was really talented and what-not, but i just could not wait for it to end. last song a BEATING - lots of musical masturbation, had like a 6 minute jam session in the middle of it.

Siberian, from seattle. 5-man: 2 guitars, keys (which i never heard), bass, drums. started off with some nice rockin wall-of-sound stuff, but tailed off quick - kept hopin/waitin to get my ass kicked, but they just never quite did. songs a bit too "nice". nice falsetto on lead, nice harmonies from bass player, fantastic lead guitar player. some really pretty indie pop, but i was just in the mood to get my guts ripped out, and they just wasnt the ones to do it. they did finish with some more wall-of-sound goodness, tho.

ella minnow - 5-man: 2 guitars, bass, keys/sax, drums. really talented group, great musicianship, some really rockin tunes, but i just couldn't get into it. couldn't really tell you why, but it had somethin to do with the song structure, or lack thereof. kinda jam-band territory sometimes, heard some GYBE. vocals good, but all over the place, and i guess i just like a bit more structure to my songs. 3 or 4 songs in, i realized i wasn't gonna get into it, and it was 1:10 in the fuckin mornin, so i split.

outtie