Tuesday, August 11, 2015

Gig Report: August 7 @ Luna’s Café and August 8 @ Clubhouse 24


 
I really like Luna’s Café.  It feels like playing at home for me.  I think it has something to do with the fact that it’s cozy, that it is a Café rather than a pub, and that Art Luna is such a cool guy.  The night opened with singer-songwriter OLIVIA AWBREY.  She described her music as punk folk, which I think really nails it.  She plays with a very percussive strumming approach that is just short of aggressive, and delivers her thoughtful lyrics with a fantastic voice that I am sure can go beyond the range she pushes it in her performance.  I really enjoyed her set and invited her to join me the next night at a different venue, but she didn’t make it.  I hope our paths cross gain in the future.  I followed Olivia, and had a pretty good set.  I tried out a couple of new songs, one which I was not sure would go over well acoustically (The Guilt Trip), but I received very good feedback form the audience, both right after the song, and after the gig.  I had a really solid turnout, but unfortunately, Olivia was from out of town (Portland), so she had no local followers, and the headlining act never showed, and neither did their fans.  So the 12 headcount that was there were my friends and followers, which is cool, but for Art’s sake I would have liked to see a fuller room.

The next night, at Clubhouse 24, I played with Charles Gunn, and it was one of those nights… I was curious about this gig as it was an exploratory event for me.  I was playing at a gallery on Second Saturday (a once a month event where galleries stay open late and host passers-by.  My goal was to gauge what a Second Saturday gig would be like, if I could live with being little more than wallpaper in return for a significant exposure.  But as it turned out, there was no exposure.  This particular gallery had not promoted and their geographical situation is such that there are not a whole lot of walk-ins.  We did get one couple who peaked in and stayed for a couple of songs, and we had three friends show up.  But other than that, we basically played for ourselves.  The redeeming factor of the evening was that Mr. John Lowry, harmonica player with the Cash Cartell Band, sat in for the majority of my set and I had a blast listening to him improvise over my songs.  Charles was solid, as always, with his laid back approach and excellent songs.  I really enjoy working with him and I believe we complement each other well.  Thanks to Chris Whetstone for the use of the PA, it sounded great in this room!

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