Tuesday, July 28, 2009

Soundcircel Flanagan at the Vibe




If you haven't heard Sound before you are in for a treat. Monday evening I went to his gig at the Vibe. The Vibe is run very well by Bratt Lunasea, and I always love to come there. Well - Sound cannot sing, but his guitar sure can. He plays his guitar to backing tracks, that he makes himself. They are amazing, and when he adds his guitar ...Well you have to come and listen to him.
He started out with Barry Manilow’s Mandy and continued with ”A little bit of green”, that he composed after having watched river dance on tv. Fyrm had to go home to get his green wellies for that one. There was a really nice crowd at the Vibe: Roni, his blue haired manager, Cher, Sin, Lara, Fifi, Bratt of course, Nya and some more that I didn’t know.
He played Gary Moore, Queen – great tunes and in Sounds hands they were lifted to a new level of melodiousness. His big idols are Joe Satriani and Steve Vai, and he saved them to the end of the gig. I have heard Steve Vai in first life, when he was a guest at a Dweezil Zappa concert, and I do think that Sound can compete with him, when it comes to handling a guitar. It feels like man and guitar becomes one. It is fantastic!
And oh –I forgot to mention Sound’s laughter. He laughs a lot, and he has a sweet, charming laughter too. And he has a dog called Summer, who sometimes snores during his gigs. Sound’s gigs are amazing mixtures of sounds.

Monday, July 27, 2009

Fyrm Fouroux at Cascadia Harmonics




Fyrm Fouroux has a gig every Sunday at Cascadia Harmonics, and I have been there most of the times. Normally Woodstock Burleigh is hosting. He is also called Woody or Woodipedia. The last because he is a virtual wikipedia. He is a master of finding things on the internet. Ticious Trottier was hosting this Sunday though, because Woody was at the SL get-together in Montreal. She has made Fyrm's tipjar – a red english postbox, that he is very fond of. Fyrm started by playing some of his own songs. One of the songs he played was actually ”Postboxes”. It is a kind of sad song about how the red english postboxes will be gone in a few years, because we all use email now instead of snail mail. His lyrics are always telling an interesting story. I simply love them, and I also love his classical trained bass-baritone voice and his in my view brilliant guitar play. He continued with a cover –"Love hurts". One of my favourites. Nowadays his gigs are split into two. First a guitar section and then a section with digital piano and synthesizer. This evening he played ”I don’t like Mondays” on digital piano. It is originally sung by Bob Geldorf and The Boomtown Rats. He continued with the Metallica song "Nothing else matters". In my opinion his deep voice is perfect for that song. Recently Fyrm has also started singing "Wicked game" – originally sung by Chris Isaak. He sings it very beautiful, and it lets you experience the full range of his voice I think. He is always experimenting, trying new things, and I think that's brilliant. He is not afraid of making mistakes, and that makes you relax – and laugh when an occasional "shit" escapes him. In the end he played ”Save the last dance for me”. Yes Fyrm –save the last dance for me :)

Sunday, July 26, 2009

Saturday evening in Second Life listening to Nad Gough, Djai Skjellerup and Strum Diesel


Yesterday we went to listen to Nad Gough at the swamp. Fyrm always wears his green wellies when we go to gigs there. I must have listened to Nad at least a hundred times, but I need a Nad fix regularly. That is just how it is. His arrangements are catchy and intelligent, and I love his voice. Somehow he reminds me of the danish jazz singer and trobadour Povl Dissing. When he first started his career people either loved him or hated him. His hoarse and theatrical way of treating danish folk songs offended a lot of people, but nowadays I think he is loved by most.
Anyway – in some strange way Nad reminds me of him, and the atmosphere at his gigs are always friendly and cosy. His manager Jody Perkins adds to the atmosphere with her spectacular particle shows.
Later in the evening we went to listen to Djai Skjellerup. He was playing at Nirvana Beach.They did something they called ”originals day”. Djai is a piano player and a very brilliant one, and his songs are wonderful and indeed very original. He is good at getting the attention of the audience. He makes people sing along in so far as it is possible in chat. Somehow it works. I definitely want to tell more about Djai’s music later on.
Last gig of the evening was Strum Diesel’s. He was also playing originals at Nirvana Beach, and I must say I was blown away. That man can handle an acoustic guitar. He is not using a loop machine or anything. He just plays with incredibly fast fingers, and it sounds awesome. I didn’t catch a lot of the lyrics of his songs. I am danish, and although I speak english rather well I think I often have to listen more than once to understand english lyrics fully. He said something interesting though. He also plays gigs in his first life, but he said that he found it more satisfying to play in second life because people there really listened. They were not so occupied with other things besides listening to the music. He also emphasized that he didn’t say ’real life’ but ’first life’. Both first and second lives are real. I so agree with him. I am definitely going to catch a Strum Diesel gig soon again.

Wednesday, July 22, 2009

Jed Tharnaby at Guthries Folk Club


Fyrm and I went to listen to Jed. I had tried to catch him the evening before, but the manager didn’t show up, so he had no stream. That’s so annoying when that happens.
Anyway – we went to Guthries Folk Club. There was no sound although it was nearly 10 min. past the hour. Eventually it was sorted out though and Jed played his first song – a song I like a lot:”Last thing on my mind” by Tom Paxton.
I quite liked his version although I must say I love Fyrm’s the most. Russell Eponym sings a very nice version too.
Jed plays a steel strung acoustic guitar and has Bob Dylan, Donovan and several others in his repertoire. It is when he sings Johnny Cash that his gig really takes off though in my opinion. His voice is very well suited for his songs. I would say that he is more of a country and western singer than a singer in the english folk tradition, although he comes from Birmingham apparently.
At some point he even played a mandolin. It sounded very good I think. I would like to hear more of that.
There was a nice crowd at about 12-15 people at Guthries and they seemed to get into the music. It was a nice experience to be there and to listen to Jed.