It’s been good to have Kelly Zullo here. I admire her skills, her spirit, her work-ethic. After performing together on Thursday at my open mic (she was the featured artist), it really showed the difference between her level of perspiration and my own – she was polished and precise and exact where I was distracted and sloppy and diffuse. She put on a Hell of a show and I, by comparison, was kind of embarassing!
That being said, I spent some time yesterday making sure my head was in better order for last night’s show… and I must admit, I was polished and precise, charming and magnificent! But no-one came to see it!
Fortunately, Troy, OH turned out save my ass.
When you have artists in from out of town, you desperately want your gigs to go well.
You want your audience to turn out in droves, you want those out-of-towners, often people you admire greatly (as I admire Kelly Zullo and Joy Ike) – to have a great experience and to say “Damn! ilyAIMY’s great! Their fans are great! I can’t wait to come back to Baltimore!”
Last night was a disaster. Not only were details altered by the venue at the last second, but they had some tech issues that had to be resolved – unrelated to the music but unfortunately in the same ROOM as the music. It was a tricky situation, an awkward time, an awkward place – but it was such a great room, great sound, a beautiful space – and great performances:
Joy Ike at Baltimore Hostel. Running sound at the Baltimore Hostel. The art was weirdly distracting, but you know – I hadn’t even NOTICED till somebody SAID something!
Kelly Zullo has been practicing. And it shows. Especially in her voice. Whereas before I’d have pointed to her pyrotechnic metal-shred-inspired guitar playing as her main attraction, her voice has just exploded into feirce competition. Strong, strident – pleading and scolding and everything in between, Kelly’s voice has really blossomed since the last time we saw her. Somewhere in Albany, she found her tongue, and what a wonderful tongue it is.
Janna! After the show at the Baltimore Hostel, we wandered over to the Paper Moon Diner for a colourful Baltimore dinner. A long wait, but with a group of 9 friends, we knew it was bound to be. This “Don’t Mess With Texas” Jeep was parked out front. Let’s get dinner at the Paper Moon! Kelly Zullo approves! I think. Brennan and Tori are less excited. One of the few home-peeps to make it out to the show was my old friend Bryan. I’ve known him since first grade and he’s the one who introduced me to Role Playing Games, indirectly an awful lot of my current personality. Strangely enough – also introduced me to comic books, GWAR, Tae Kwon Do and quite possibly Monty Python. I’m not sure if he’s proud of these facts or not. It was really great to see him – I was glad he could join us at the Moon afterwards – sort of his kind of place!
Joy Ike on the other hand – I’d only ever been able to see her perform once before. Two or three songs at an open mic – I’d gotten an opportunity to see that she was really great, but the longer sets last night really allowed me to appreciate her exquisite charm, the great writing – the power of a great piano performer. It also made me really appreciate her keyboard – which – if I had the money, I think I’d have to purchase for Sharif. Now.
Joy brought a sense of beauty to the night that really rounded out ilyAIMY and Kelly’s freneticisms and she has a wisdom in her lyrics that make me want to ask inappropriate questions about her ageless face.
It was a great show. Unfortunately, no-one came to see it. Facebook had given me the impression that I’d least have a SMALL local artist… unfortunately, we had next to NO local audience. Three people that were there for the majority of the show? An additional 3 that made it just as we were wrapping up. It was an embarassing night saved only by the people staying at the hostel, the majority of which turned out to be a school group from Troy, OH.
They were awesome. They were attentive and excited and really, really excellent snappers. Good to know. We’ll have to have some jazz tunes for when we go to Ohio again. You know, for snappin.
