Blitzen Trapper/Alela Diane - Black Cat - March 2 2009

Alela Diane started things out with a song that was a bit too country for my tastes. The second song made me sit up and take notice as it was a much more mystical folk-rock styled song. The rest of the set varied but most mostly high quality singer-songwriter US folkrock for the most part. Her dad was on guitar making this the rare act where the parent is not the feature (Spirit comes to mind as another). She could have done without the cover song which sounded too much like her sound already (I've forgotten it alrdeady, but it was an old hit by a female singer songwriter). Still, a really nice job by someone who get give some of the mainstream artists in this genre a run at their money.

Blitzen Trapper - A sold-out show with everyone mostly turning up despite the snow and ice from earlier in the day. The band started off strong with eclectic pop sometimes toward power pop. Nice catchy songs, quirky arrangements--good fun. Then they went a little quieter and my mind wandered a lot more than it should have. The lead singer then did some solo songs with his guitar and harmonica and then a duet before the band returned. That slowed down the momentum for me. But they did a bit of a psychy freakout toward the end which was a nice surprise. A really good band who I would advise to stick with the fuller sound. If you're going to go solo with an acoustic guitar, you better be really really good. I know John Martyn and Davy Graham have just left us, but you have to be a bit better than this to replace them.

Quote of the Night: "Bad banter!" someone yelled while the band was talking between songs. I am not sure they really said that as the banter wasn't really bad, just unimportant and that doesn't sound like something someone would shout. Sounds more like what my mind would twist something into.