shame is so in this season

barely breathing, barely making sense

i went to jess's friend chris garneau's show last night at the living room. he's a pretty talented singer/songwriter who plays mellow piano driven pop with a slightly annoying faux brit twang. i forgave him though because there was a cello involved. and i, like the judes, totally heart the cello. he also had a backup vocalist who played the guitar and/or this other instrument that involved blowing into a tube and playing a mini keyboard. i'm not sure what it's called (and i'm too lazy to look it up) but it was a bit amusing to watch him really get into it (eyes closed, leaning in and out, head wavering). but who am i to judge - it could very well be an emotion arousing instrument.

oh yeah, duncan sheik (of barely breathing fame) played back up guitar - and he kept effin it up too.

so after chris's set finished, duncan stayed on stage to play with his new yet to be named band (himself plus two other guys who switch off playing bass and acoustic guitar). they were ok... not fantastic, not terrible, just plain yogurt ok. there was this one song, however that was a little cringeworthy. it began each line (not verse -- line) with "love is." i can't remember the exact lyrics, but one line was "love is an umbrella" and another was "love is a flower." i immediately had visions of bette midler and tried my hardest not to laugh out loud. there were other problems though: they all were playing off different setlists. they had to start a song over because of poor tuning. they dealt with broken strings and missing capos. they had between song banter that only elicited pity laughter. it was a pretty shoddy operation, but i concede on the premise that it was only their second show playing together. on the whole, the harmonies were pretty but uninventive, the lyrics were more miss than hit and the staging needed a lot of work. other than that i give it one half-hearted thumbs down and one anticipatory (and generous) thumbs up.

posted by erica @ 11:45 AM