I’ve been in a concert kind of mood the past couple of days. I’ve gone to three shows in the past five nights featuring several bands that you have never heard of and one that you probably have. Since I don’t have much else to write about I guess I’ll do a few quick concert reviews.
Saw Garrison Starr and Abra Moore on Friday night. I’ve been a fan of Garrison’s for a few years now. She is another in a long line of female singer-songwriters that I find interesting. In Garrison’s case it is because of her Mississippi accent and sweet nature combined with a tough exterior. And cool tattoos. Sometimes all it takes is a show of confidence to make me interested in a performer.
She had one story that really struck me. She had played in Memphis the night before (and a Memphis to KC trek in one day is not fun) and she happened to run into someone she went to grade school and high school with and hadn’t seen since graduation. The guy went up to her and went, ‘Saw you were playing and I thought I’d come out and see the show.” To which she was grateful but she also thought, “Where the hell have you been? I’ve been doing this for ten years and I’ve released four albums.” Bear in mind that she was playing to forty people at Davey’s when she told this story.
That’s what makes me think of the music industry as an incredibly difficult gig. Garrison has been doing this for a decade, loading up her car and hitting the road and playing to small crowds. She’s made a little bit of a name but still only plays to a small crowd. That has nothing to do with her talent. It’s just the nature of the business. By the time Abra Moore, who had mainstream success at one point, took the stage the crowd was down to twenty five people and hell, even I left before the end of the set. That’s why I try to support artists whenever I can, it has to be tough to sing your life’s work to an empty room.
Saw Vedera on Saturday night and they are probably my favorite local band. They used to be known as Veda, but thanks to another band claiming that name they had to change theirs and lose a whole bunch of recognition in the process. In my mind, they are a group that suffers from the current state of the music industry. I know that people claim that the long tail helps out these small bands and provides them with better distribution but if this band was around in 1994 they would have been huge.
Because Vedera is a band that is made for videos. The lead singer (Kristen May) has a killer voice and stage presence and just happens to be very beautiful. She’s also not just that front voice, she also plays guitar and leads the show. The songs are bombastic and powerful and really sound as if they were taken from an episode of Alternative Nation. A decade ago you would have seen their videos on MTV late at night and they would have built a mainstream following. Now it’s actually tougher for them to make their break as there just isn’t a large outlet for their music.
Finally, I just came back from seeing Allison Krauss and Union Station. I’ll talk about this more tomorrow but if you want to talk about a band that is tight from the moment they take the stage, this is the band. They’ve been playing together for more than a decade and all of the musicians are at the top of their game (Jerry Douglas is freaking insane on the dobro.) It’s just an amazing show, so much talent in one place. Enough so that I’ll write a full post on it tomorrow.
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