Fred Gillen Jr. (w/ Todd Giudice) / Andy Dolson (3/9/05)



This night I didn't even bother to pretend to study before going to the Spider, I just ended up there... I had been waiting to see Fred Gillen Jr. again, ever since his last appearance at the Barking Spider over a year ago. He a strong Dan Bern influence, which at that time was about the best thing someone could have going for them. I kept watching his mailing list for his next arrival to Cleveland and I even corresponded with him a couple times. It seemed like forever but he finally came back and I wasn't about to miss it for schoolwork. By the time I got there, I didn't even expect to catch the opener, but as I walked in I saw a young guy with a guitar covering a John Mayer song (uh oh).

I sat down at the bar and said hi to the Martin (the owner) as I often do... Though this time I decided to explain to him why I would be taking pictures in there more often. He was quite cool with it. I even went on to explain how I even redesigned the layout of the Barking Spider website for one of my Information Architecture classes (you can check it out here). While I think it would be amazing to redo their website for them, I realize that I just don't have the skills to do it the way I would like it to be done. Regardless, I think there are some good structure and ideas there. He said he'd pass the info on to his daughter who was maintaining the site now...

Sitting back down at the bar I noticed Fred at a table. I introduced myself and asked if it would be okay to take some photos. He was flattered and introduced me to his friend Todd Giudice who would be playing with him that night. Back at the bar, I was realizing that Andy Dolson was pretty good and I enjoyed his last couple songs. It was a bit busy at this point and I was glad to see people there.

Fred was charming and passionate on stage, and Todd was a great compliment. Dan Bern had a presence that night, especially with the cover of God Said No, but the night was actually overshadowed by Woody Guthrie . Many Guthrie stories were told and songs played, and it turns out that Dan & Todd are in a Woodie Tribute Band called Hope Machine. While there were plenty of people there that night, it was obvious by their noise that they were not there for the music. Once they all left in one big group, Fred proclaimed how we could finally rock out. Fred continued with one of his favorite songs "America the Beautiful," except with only 1 original verse and four additional ones, all a critique on current American culture.

As they continued to play I got to strike up a conversation with Andy. He's a student down at Akron studying Jazz guitar and actually prefers to play the piano. His favorite bands being Switchfoot and Ben Folds. He definitely had the look of a young 70's singer songwriter. I got to talk about my blog and how I really liked the mix of technology and music. We discussed MP3's, filesharing, iPods (he fixed his own from spare parts off eBay), and just about anything else dealing with the future of music. It was great to get the perspective of an up an coming young artist.

I stayed to the end despite having to get up early the next morning. I bought both of Andy's CD's and Fred's "Killing Machine" album and thanked them for a great night.

Posted: Fri - March 25, 2005 at 11:34 PM           |

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