East Coast Caravan - Amber Dutton -- DC9 - July 20 2010

Amber Dutton - Well it was too good to last. From that hyper-attentive audience at a jazz club on Monday to the typical gabby cell phone gazing (eyes do not gaze upon shoes any more) club people. When I was able to focus attention on the stage, I was very pleasantly rewarded. Amber Dutton sings and strums an acoustic guitar. I would say about half the songs were very good, while the rest were decent enough. The real bright spot was her addition of Gregg Hammond on second guitar with a touch of mandolin and bass. He played acoustic but played all kinds of leads and runs with various effects. The first song reminded me of one of my favorite spacey acoustic duos, Emtidi, which is a sound I do not hear often enough. Ms. Dutton was a bit more Americana than European psychedelic folk, but the combination with Hammond made for a very entertaining set. I even heard Fresh Maggots at times (the very collectible, yet oddly named psyche-folk duo)! This set was a real treat for those of us who actually listened to it.

East Coast Caravan - This area band is a four piece with two guitarists. They play very catchy pop music with a touch of roots and catchy rhythms. The guitars do a lot of interesting angular runs and work off of each other well. Frankly, the music would slip into perfectly decent music that would not personally grab me, were it not for these interesting guitar runs. I think their songs are certainly of a quality where they should attract a lot of interest. As long as they keep their edge, I will be one of those interested listeners. And they did a Stevie Ray Vaughn tune for the blues fans out there.

Quote of the Night: From the headliners... "We didn't get much sleep last night. Girls kept banging on the door. We finally had to get up and let them out." rimshot, please.