A lot of it’s context. An act that I don’t think I’d have bothered with for more than a song or two back in the broad daylight of South by Southwest, tonight has me transfixed in an underground coffeehouse in Dallas, Texas. I still haven’t caught the name of the act, but they are exquisite and crystal clear, filling this room with beautiful 3-part harmonies, banjo and guitar, bass – beautiful songs that are busily breaking my heart ventricle by precious ventricle.
D. Anson is another member of that O’Riley’s crew. (below you can maybe make him out in the back playing bass) and indeed, he’s a very talented bass player – but DAMN – when we got to see him perform solo, what a crazy-good vocalist. His grin is infectious, his mouth clambours all over his face emoting and his guitar style is muscular and fierce. (this is him performing at the open mic at Opening Bell Coffee in Dallas, TX).
The talent that we’ve seen tonight is incredible. The audience is shamefully non-existant and I want to run around the streets in the rain screaming at the locals – telling them they don’t know what they’ve got.
We met some pretty amazing musicians clustered around O’Riley’s in Dallas, Texas – I really fell in Love with the community there. At the mic there is the host of the open mic, Taylor and in the foreground on fiddle is Orion. He’s a bad ass percussionist as well and generally just a great, warm human. With cool hair.
Of course, I guess I feel like that in most towns. Most people never open their hearts to these things they have in their back yards – never open their ears or eyes. The storm that’s covered most of Texas for the past 24 hours is maybe filling me with electricity and water and I’m having trouble containing myself, I want to play and play, but then I never want what I’m listening to to end – I want to intake this, let it fill me and regenerate it, fill my own voice matching up and lifting and that vibration in your throat that tells you that yes – just there – everything’s matching and blending in sympathy.
We returned to O’Riley’s for their OFFICIAL open mic and played a nice long set – totally a gig in it’s own right (and actually, the host ended up paying us as if it were) and then Heather ended up sitting in with a bunch of the other acts (including Keith Cameau above) doing such varied numbers as Nine Inch Nails’ “Closer” and “I Wanna Be Like You” from Disney’s The Jungle Book.
And after playing the Opening Bell, we returned to O’Riley’s open mic. We’d played there last night and made some really good friends, but unfortunately we’d had to be in pretty early. However tonight we had a key to the house and could stay out as late as we damn well pleased and so it’s now 2.39am and we’re slowly making our way back through the rainy, Dallas highways. The weather’s lightened slightly, but it still makes running in to the convenience store for a late, late snack a desparate dash during which all body heat escapes me.
Heather and Keith Cameau performing the latter half of Closer. Sorry – it took me wa while to get my ass in gear with my camera!
I’m amazed by the people we’ve met here. Especially at O’Riley’s, they have an incredible crew of extremely talented musicians. Arguably the most talented little collection we’ve ever seen in one place. The host for the night, Orion, was just a great, warm guy and a bad-ass percussionist. He sat in with us on Hands, Stand By Me and Counting, getting all the cues dead on, making the stops with us, adding some great sound effects for the Emenem rap… it was not NEARLY enough to make me forget the rest of the band, but
it put a little bandage on the pain of their absence.
My cousin Rachel’s charming children.
It’s hard to depart when your car is infested with CHILDREN!!!!OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA
Look carefully and you will see the dog’s head poking out her lap. Tiny puppy! So cute! Going 70! The streak he would leave if he fell out would be very, very, very long.
There are a bunch of people from that open mic who, if I had the money (and they had the discs) I’d gladly purchase CDs from. The last disc i purchased was from a Baltimore band called Playground Etiquette. I don’t remember what the CD before that was. I would’ve bought four other player’s CDs tonight. I have waaaay too much ego to almost ever do that.
Heather laying out the tent in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. I’m not being as lazy as it may appear as I had to rake the campsite clear! I’m a good rob I am.
The beauty of Oklahoma City as the sun goes down. I shouldn’t bother with buying postcards when I can just catch shots like this and slap some text on them…
And we roasted pecans on the campfire that night as the full moon shone down. Beautiful night…
And Heather was amazing. She played djembe for most of the night. She’s really hit her stride with the drum and played along with just about everyone else. She was a star and held court with many an admirer. Find D. Anson. I’ve run out of adjectives for the night unfortunately. Heather made a list. I’m glad. I need to put a links section back together simply because of the last 48 hours here in Dallas. What a night, what a night.
But really, the question is: Should we stay an extra day and let Orion dread my hair?
