Final Catch Up: Gray Sky Girls and Melissa Ferrick (w/ Bitch)



This post signals that I am finally caught up with my pseudo concert reviews! I won't let that happen again, ugh... Unfortunately they got a little out of order here at the end, but oh well.

As I was scanning back over my music calendar to make sure I caught everything, I was saddened to see everything I've missed over the last 6 months. I guess that's what happens when you buy a house. Still... Just to rub salt in my own wound, here's a list of my top missed shows over the past couple months:

1. The Hidden Cameras / Grog Shop (cancelled)
2. The Gossip / Grog Shop
3. Girl Talk / Grog Shop
4. The Decemberists / The Agora
5. Andrew Bird / The Beachland
6. Chris Pureka / Barking Spider Tavern (cancelled)
7. The Black Keys / The Agora
8. Calexico / The Beachland

I'll get over it.

Gray Sky Girls (9/11/07)

This show definitely deserved it's own post. Hell, it should have been several posts. I've been salivating over the Naomi Sommers solo albums for some time. I think she is my favorite songwriter right now. Having never seen her in concert, I was elated to see she was coming back to the Barking Spider. She was coming with Lisa Bastoni as the Gray Sky Girls. This was to be an event!

On a whim I decided to send Naomi an email. There were sooo many songs I wanted to hear and I wasn't sure if she would be playing much of her original stuff as part of this duo... She responded and said she'd be happy to play a couple songs. Then she asked if I knew of a place to crash for the night... I told her she would be more than welcome to crash with us, and to not worry... that we were two really nice gay guys. It was set...

Of course I was so excited about the show that I didn't even take any notes... I do remember that they were infinitely charming on stage, harmonized beautifully, covered some great songs, and played some amazing originals... Of course, the highlight for me was Naomi playing my favorite song of hers, Now He's Gone. A truly sad track for an avid dog lover... but she has the sentiment is right on.

Now He's Gone:

After the show we hung out a little, drank a little, then took them on a night driving tour of Cleveland. We even swung them by a couple homes we were looking at buying. :) Once we got back to the house, we brought all their stuff in, and I was kinda hoping to have them bust out the guitars and do a little impromptu "practicing" but I'm sure that was the last thing on their mind. The next morning we got up and left for work and let them take their time getting on the road.

Coming back I found this on our dry erase board, with a CD in the middle... LOVE 'EM! Now we have a much bigger place for them to stay when they come back. Hell, we might even be able to host a house concert!

Melissa Ferrick & Bitch (1/25/07)

As usual, I see Melissa whenever I can. This show was just a little more special... Her new album is GREAT, and opening was Bitch! I sent my "calling all Lesbians" email out and they all responded! It was going to be a great night... And as usual with her shows, it ends up being more of a social gathering than a concert. I ended up running into a few of my favorite people and had a great time hanging out.

On stage, Bitch opened up, playing by completely by herself. That was until Melissa came out and played drums for her. Seeing them together was a treat, they had some great chemistry together. Of course one of the problems with these shows being a "social event," it makes it hard to enjoy the music over all the talking...

During Melissa's set, Bitch stood in the front row, enjoying the show. Which it's quite a change to see the opening act so front and center for the main act. I think that says a lot about Melissa. She played a lot of songs from her new album which was great... What wasn't great was that it was on a week night. I stayed as long as I could, but had to leave before Melissa could finish. Hopefully next time she'll be here on a weekend. :)

I also hasn't posted any photos on Flickr lately and I had several decent ones from this show. I threw them up as a photoset on Flickr. Click on this image to see the full-size versions.

Posted: Wed - February 14, 2007 at 02:56 PM           |

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