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Wednesday, March 2, 2011
A Fruitfull Night After All
Tuesday, March 1, 2011
A Return to "The Project"
This week I will be checking out the New and Improved "Barn" at UCR. For those of us who remember, The Barn was the place to see the hottest IE acts in the 90's. I'll also be looking at The Plum House, Back to the Grind, Mission Tobacco Lounge, Worthingtons, and Lake Alice. I will be writing reviews about every performer I can while trying to gain a following for this blog.
My goals for this blog are:
- To review and critique musicians who perform in Riverside.
- To create a site where musicians can read reviews of their performances from their audience members through my posts and the comments others post in response.
- To establish a community of performers so we can create entertaining and more frequent performances.
- To review venues so that performers know what to expect as far as things like sound quality, available equipment, and crowds.
I can't wait to see all the music Riverside has to offer and to see what this becomes.
I do feel like I must add, I am not ever going to write something just to stroke someones ego. My opinions may at times be gushing with adoration or may be a laundry list of critiques. I think my honesty is vital to the continuity of this blog as well as valuable to the performers I review. You have to be able to take, and work with criticism if performing is what you want to do.
I preach this to musicians all the time. If you don't want criticism then stay in your room and play your songs to the stuffed animals and pets you adore and who adore you. However, once you step on stage your job is to perform for your audience. Your job is to entertain, and taking your audiences opinion into consideration is vital for your growth as an artist.
Thanks for stopping by and I hope to see you at a local show!
Sunday, May 23, 2010
At The Mercy of the Restaurant Business
Thank you to those who have stopped by to read the beginnings of my experiment. Especially to my Aunt Marilynn and my Mom~in~Law, who's encouraging words mean ever so much.
Tuesday, May 18, 2010
Back to the Grind
Two guys, an acoustic bass player and acoustic guitar player, timidly take the stage. One quietly asks the other if they're ready, a small "yes" barely slips past the bass players lips, and the first guitar chords begin. My initial comparison was to Jack Johnson, but then the voice of the guitar player rang through and I felt like a happy child again, in my room, listening to my Mom's Boz Scaggs albums on my old record player. His voice was unique and very pleasant. What I found most amazing is that as I sat there I could close my eyes and what I was hearing could have been coming out of a radio. These guys are good! These guys rehearse, and it shows. Not to mention the acoustics in that room are really quite good. I was very impressed.
The bass player would come in with well chosen subtle harmonies at just the right times.
The guys expressed in between songs that their music is all about Love and Compassion, and that really does shine through in their lyrics. In their first song I particularly enjoyed the lyric "Forget your Memories and your plans... Leave your worries at the door and just dance." There was also a small bass feature in the middle of the song which I thought was clever. Their second song was a very sultry sounding song of life and living for the moment because the moment can end at any time. The imagery in this song was beautiful. "You don't know when you're done so I sing and dance with the sun, because everything is one." Very well done and they completely avoided the amateur trap of similar sounding songs. The songs were unique while staying within the particular style the guys have chosen. Overall a very good performance. The only advise I would give is to look into adding some percussion to your group. It will only improve the sound by making it fuller and more rounded. These guys will be having a CD release party at Back to the Grind on Saturday May 22nd from 8PM to 11PM. They'll be giving out free CD's and posters that they designed. Do come see Inner Prisms, truly an enjoyable new audio experience.
Another shy performer. Tiffany quietly takes the stage and pulls her classical guitar from her gig bag. She is asked if this is her first time singing for the Back to the Grind crowed, and she replies with a soft yes and a nod. Then, without any self introduction, she tells us that the song she is about to play is an original titled "Your Eyes". Though her guitar playing was modest, her voice was angelic! Sweet, wispy, delicate, and incredibly pleasant and relaxing to listen to. Strong when it needs to be, soft the rest of the time, like Sarah McLachlan, I was convinced that this girl could make the oscar mayer bologna song sound pretty. Her stage presence was like that of a shadow. I think if she keeps performing her confidence will grow, but I would like to see her come out of her shell more in the following weeks. The song she wrote was honest and pretty. It could be further developed, but all in all a good song, a good performance, and a fantastic voice.
I cannot write enough great things about this group. Even their "tuning song" was enjoyed by the audience. Tonight they played a newer song called "Begging ain't something I'm gonna do" and it was of course, very good. It's always so great the first time you hear Isela's vocals come in. Such a wonderful accompaniment to Sal's classic sounding voice. The second song they chose to do was the one Jon and I are labeling our favorite for the time being, is "When I fall In Love". The sound of Isela's shaker, the gentle plucking of the guitar strings, and the lyrics "I never dream of sunshine when only rain will do. What good is all the sunshine when my heart is broken in two?", I felt like I was sitting on a porch listening to the rain fall above me and watching the sun peek out from behind the clouds. I love when a song has that rare ability to take you somewhere else. This song does that. Sal, Isela, and David always deliver the goods to our neighborhood, and I can't wait to see them again.
This clean cut young man was also a first timer to the Back to the Grind stage.The song was an original, seemingly about the breaking up of a family. Ryan has the blueprints he needs, now he needs to build. The song has good subject matter and rhyme schemes, it just needs to be cleaned up and tightened structurally. Vocally Ryan just needs to keep performing to gain confidence and stage presence. Singing with conviction and really pushing out those notes should help with the minor pitch issues. Something else I like to recommend new writers and performers is to record, record, record! A good job for a first timer, I hope Ryan continues to work on his art and perform it for us.
Ashley ~
Ashley described her song as being an honest tell all of her feelings for a special person. She even said she was nervous to do it. I applaud your bravery Ashley, I'm glad you followed through. The song was a throwback to simpler times, some of my favorite times musically, the nineties. Where women wrote simple songs that we could all relate to and rocked. This is the song Ashley wrote. Her performance also reminded me of the white stripes song "We're going to be friends". It was essentially a love letter to chords. I would recommend for Ashley annunciation and projection work, and for this particular song perhaps a capo on the third fret or so. The song seems a little low in her vocal register and we would probably get to enjoy more of her voice if it was just a bit higher. A great job by Ashley, I'm glad she was brave enough to do the song that made her so nervous.
So a very good night for our first official night out. I am looking forward to hitting up two locations tomorrow. Congratulations to the two newcomers tonight, and Bravo to all of the nights performers. It was a fabulous time.
Cheers to Back to the Grind for hosting and serving up great drinks.
Sunday, May 16, 2010
Introduction to the Riverside Underground Experiment
The purpose of this blog, is to showcase the local talent here in our city of art. After attending an open mic night at the downtown Coffee Depot, it dawned on me that we have amazing talent here in Riverside. Even most of my closest friends are local musicians, but there are so many I have yet to meet. I hope by showcasing this talent through pictures, youtube videos and this blog, I might be able to help some of our local musicians get their big break, which is really the root of "the Experiment". The Experiment is about letting the world know that Riverside California has talent and is a city of the arts. It's also a place where local artists can read my reviews and the comments left by others who may have seen them perform. It will be an experiment in itself to see what comes of this.
This blog will follow my open mic adventures in Riverside. Here you will be able to find out who our local talent is, where they play, and my critiques on performances. Open mic nights are held Monday through Saturday at various locations in the city of Riverside, and I intend to attend as many as possible.
My first official attendance will be tomorrow night (May 17th 2010) at Downtown's Back to the Grind. A coffee shop that is near and dear to my heart, so it should be a fun night. I hope to see you there, but if you can't make it, check out my blog to see how it went.