Robbie Fulks, Jammin Java, 2/27/18:
Robbie took the stage a few minutes after I arrived. Solo. A fit, tall 55 year old man with his acoustic guitar. I prefer when he has some other pickers with him, but he's an accomplished solo player so can always carry the show on his own. A nice mix of old and new material. Funny stories throughout. It's interesting that this was the most expensive Fulks show I've ever been to in the last 20(?) years, even though he was sans band. I guess a Grammy nomination bumps up your ticket price. Maybe it went into the sound equipment. I must say, for a rinky dink place out in the suburbs that rarely books any acts of interest (people actually pay to see 311 tribute bands?), they have some really nice sound in the place.
The crowd was a nice mix of old and older white people. Average age, probably around 60. It seems like a lot of ugly people tend to like the music I like, and Robbie's crowd, myself included, may take the fruitcake. One of the fruits, a 50something woman sitting between Robbie and I, proceeded to stamp her clogs off the beat on the hardwood floor for every single quiet acoustic song. What a talent she was. Almost like it wasn't a solo show. But I digress. A wise man once said "Country is Not Pretty." And speaking of not being pretty...
Frightened Rabbit, Black Cat, 2/28/18:
First, I have to say that there was a statistically significant amount of the crowd who looked like Ed Sheeran, and a few of them were even dudes.
The Rabbits took the stage a few minutes after I arrived. The singer looked and sounded like a bleating, bloated, aging (not well) fratboy in a baseball cap. The other (skinny) Rabbits looked like they were splitting the same bag of carrots. The skinny (vanilla) Rabbits played like they were gunning for an Easter presidential pardon, while the chubby vanilla singer bleated his drunken best in between his spoken word tales of the glory of whiskey and the pains of acid reflux. I must say that 10 years ago, when the singer bleated "You won't find love in a hole," he sounded like a frat boy wise beyond his years (at least for a Scottish guy.) Now, it just sounds a little forced and gross. This show was better as a $15 show when I saw it ten years ago at RNR Hotel. Now, for $35, not worth it. Even the good beer choices at CK and WF didn't help salvage it for me. Though it was cool hanging with VD.
This was my first Cat show in a number of years. I wonder if they'll ever get the sound anywhere near as good as the 9:30 or Jammin Java? I'm seeing Nada Surf there next week, they have six days to figure it out.
