A Great Evening with Or, the Whale, Pete and J
You know what I like about music that is country inspired? The musicians are happy. And nice. There don’t seem to be any pretensions or attitudes, just a genuine appreciation that you are there to listen to their music. Thursday June 5th at The Independent, Greg Ashley, Pete and J, and Or, the Whale all seemed to be in good spirits, and I left with a smile on my face.
Greg Ashley – solo artist and former frontman for 60s psyche-band, Gris Gris –opened the show with haunting songs that made me reminiscent of times I’ve never experienced. His music sounds like a cold and foggy day that just so happened to come when you were tired of the summer heat.
Next up was Pete and J whose positive energy signaled the clearing of the clouds into a warm morning. I could not believe how much they each smiled and when J’s mic went out, he scooted over to Pete’s mic as if nothing was wrong at all. “San Francisco is full of love” Pete proclaimed. “New York is full of cynicism and hate. I’m sure there’s some of that here, but keep it down” he said with a grin. Pete and J’s music was light, and fun with songs like “Centrifugal Motion” getting even the seated-folks to tap their feet. Pete and J are also vintage in all the right ways. At one point, their drummer and bassist left the stage for Pete and J’s acoustic duet, and between tall, blonde, curly-haired Jason wearing bell bottoms, next to dark-haired Pete harmonizing beautiful melodies, it was nearly-impossible to miss the Simon and Garfunkel likeness. Pete and J are definitely worthy of whatever hype-making mechanism is cool these days. Fuzz.com, perhaps?
After Pete and J finished off their set with a bang, Or, the Whale emerged. The seven-piece alt-country rock outfit started out by thanking everyone from the venue to the sponsors, merch table helpers, openers, and the city itself for having them. Their songs immediately had everyone stomping their boots – quite literally – and singing along. Or, the Whale is one of those bands who you can’t fully grasp until you see them perform. They create a synergy amongst them that blends their voices and instruments so seamlessly that you can’t imagine a time when they didn’t exist together. Or, the Whale balanced a smooth, heart-felt sound with a raw, straight-forward urgency so intense that guitarist Alex Robins broke not one, but two guitar strings. His exclamation of “You just can’t fucking contain me!” seemed to explain it all. Or, the Whale closed with the perfect anthem for a hot summer night, “Call and Response” which left the audience desperate for more. The band returned for two songs, the latter of which was “Fight Song” which appropriately begins “If this is the last song that you’ll hear, I’ll make sure that it’s sharp and clear”. As the band sang the lyrics “These will be the last chords that I’ll play, if it helps to take the pain away”, I wanted to assure the seven of them that, yes, they certainly did. So thank YOU, Or, the Whale for a great evening.
Greg Ashley – solo artist and former frontman for 60s psyche-band, Gris Gris –opened the show with haunting songs that made me reminiscent of times I’ve never experienced. His music sounds like a cold and foggy day that just so happened to come when you were tired of the summer heat.
Next up was Pete and J whose positive energy signaled the clearing of the clouds into a warm morning. I could not believe how much they each smiled and when J’s mic went out, he scooted over to Pete’s mic as if nothing was wrong at all. “San Francisco is full of love” Pete proclaimed. “New York is full of cynicism and hate. I’m sure there’s some of that here, but keep it down” he said with a grin. Pete and J’s music was light, and fun with songs like “Centrifugal Motion” getting even the seated-folks to tap their feet. Pete and J are also vintage in all the right ways. At one point, their drummer and bassist left the stage for Pete and J’s acoustic duet, and between tall, blonde, curly-haired Jason wearing bell bottoms, next to dark-haired Pete harmonizing beautiful melodies, it was nearly-impossible to miss the Simon and Garfunkel likeness. Pete and J are definitely worthy of whatever hype-making mechanism is cool these days. Fuzz.com, perhaps?
After Pete and J finished off their set with a bang, Or, the Whale emerged. The seven-piece alt-country rock outfit started out by thanking everyone from the venue to the sponsors, merch table helpers, openers, and the city itself for having them. Their songs immediately had everyone stomping their boots – quite literally – and singing along. Or, the Whale is one of those bands who you can’t fully grasp until you see them perform. They create a synergy amongst them that blends their voices and instruments so seamlessly that you can’t imagine a time when they didn’t exist together. Or, the Whale balanced a smooth, heart-felt sound with a raw, straight-forward urgency so intense that guitarist Alex Robins broke not one, but two guitar strings. His exclamation of “You just can’t fucking contain me!” seemed to explain it all. Or, the Whale closed with the perfect anthem for a hot summer night, “Call and Response” which left the audience desperate for more. The band returned for two songs, the latter of which was “Fight Song” which appropriately begins “If this is the last song that you’ll hear, I’ll make sure that it’s sharp and clear”. As the band sang the lyrics “These will be the last chords that I’ll play, if it helps to take the pain away”, I wanted to assure the seven of them that, yes, they certainly did. So thank YOU, Or, the Whale for a great evening.
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