Echoes of Pompeii, a Pink Floyd tribute band performed last saturday night to an older crowd at the Abbey Pub. It was a much more solemn environment than what I was expecting when I walked in the door. The crowd was made up mostly of older people probably averaging the age of 50's and older. Due to average age of the audience I couldn't help but notice how much more higher the high end frequencies were being turned up to compensate for the elderly loss of hearing. This to me resulted in pain and sharpness in my ear when I stood in the center between the 2 speakers. It was so overwhelming to me that I could only stand in this ideal location for a couple songs before my ears began to throb. I watched Breathe and Comfortably Numb from the centered position, which was a thrill to see. Those are two of my favorites by Pink Floyd.
The band itself wasn't bad. The instrumentation was spot on and the parts were all played well especially the back up vocalists Betsy Plant and Melissa Ferrara. These 2 dynamic vocalists blew me away with their solos. They were comparable to two boxers going back and forth with one another. One would sing, do her thing, have the crowd amazed and then the other would have her turn and top what the other had just done and they'd go back and forth like so.
Overall it was a decent show and I'm happy to know that I've seen a Pink Floyd tribute band now because I've had several chances before, but have just never sprung for it, but now I can finally say I've seen Dark Side of the Moon live.
It was a special night at the Abbey Pub this past tuesday for the Henhouse Prowlers show. The night began with a short bluegrass set performed by Lake County natives Uncle Zesty's Old Time Bootknockers. Their show was pretty fun and consisted of a male female singing partnership. The Bootknockers played maybe a 40 minute set before breaking to meet the crowd. I particularly enjoyed the woman because she has a nice voice and plays the same instruments as I do including the guitar, harmonica, and Kazoo so I found her especially interesting. The Bootknockers then passed out free stickers and provided an emailing list. The second half of the night brought on the Abbey Pub resident bluegrass band the Henhouse Prowlers who performed a very intimate set to mark the final show of their mandolin player Grant Ziolkowski as he intends to move on to play with another group, but I cannot remember their name. With it being Grant's last show and the quaint size of the crowd the Prowlers took requests for a couple songs and at the closing of the night unplugged and brought their instruments down on the dance floor where the crowd and I were able to circle around and really enjoyed the treat. When the musicians unplugged and came down on the floor to perform their final 2 songs with mandolin player they played Syracuse and I can't remember the other song they played, but it was really awesome. Unfortunetly none of the members from Uncle Zesty's Old Time Bootknockers ever joined up with the prowlers on stage to play a song together. I was kind of hoping for that, but oh well it was still a great night with 2 really good bluegrass bands.
Another small friendly place to catch a show is Lincoln Hall's sister venue Schubas. Located on the north side of Chicago on Belmont and Southport streets. I happened to make it for a solo show of Dastardly's front man Gabe Liebowitz. The opener of the night was Ami Saraiya who also played a solo show performing with the use of acoustic guitar and accordion. Her set was ok. Nothing special to me. It was neat to see the accordion in action, but her style of playing and overall sound was more mediterranean/ eastern european than Gaelic. I prefer western Europe. She did have a dynamic performance with strong, powerful vocals that were full of passion.
The main act was the solo set of Gabe Liebowitz. I had hoped his band would have been backing him, but to my misfortune no, it was just him doing a solo set. He opened the night fun enough with a traditional country song Lost Highway that I thought he did particularly well, but then continued down a darker path with a number of songs about being lonely. I stepped outside for a drink. When I came back he was still in the same mood.
I was disappointed the band didn't accompany him because they would have brought a lot more energy and I was looking to dance. When he plays with the band they're called Dastardly and they have an upbeat country sound and consist of a jazzy stand up bass, accordion, banjo, and guitars. Gabe as a vocalist is extremely dynamic and can deliver lots of energy from all over the sonic spectrum. He ended up closing the night off singing over a recording of Frank Sinatra's and hit each note. I was surprised. I did not see it coming at all, but it was pretty cool.
The venue itself was quaint and reserved. When I walked into the venue side I was smacked in the face with what I saw. People seated quietly all in rows listening intently to performers. Not a person moved or grooved. The ticket was $5 at the door. I felt kind of bad though because the beer was more expensive than the ticket to the show.
Overall it was a decent show and I'm happy to know that I've seen a Pink Floyd tribute band now because I've had several chances before, but have just never sprung for it, but now I can finally say I've seen Dark Side of the Moon live.
