Here's the quick logistics:
- Thursdays - Saturdays: doors open at 6, 7 starts the pre-show cocktail hours, with featured performers starting at 8.
- Sundays: doors open at 6 for the cocktail hour, with featured performers starting at 7.
- Dixon Place is at 161A Chrystie Street.
- Free PBRs for the first 25 guests!
I had to find this random little video performance, which pins AC as a lounge/standard singer. He's definitely got some pipes, and if you're down for an evening of kicking back and loosing yourself in the sweet sounds for a while, this is certainly a show you'll want to check out. Perfect thing for a Thursday night heading in to a (finally) Friday.
"Black and White" starts off with the line "When she fell in love with a Steinway..." There's a song here about love, of course, but also very much about the fear of being hurt by it. It's really hard to dine into a relationship when you've been hurt before, and this could be a great musical description of that. The loss of control in love can be disastrous, but can also be beautiful and... well, we'll see. The song is great, she's got stories to tell with that voice, and we should listen.
I listened to a demo of "Not Just Another Way" that was this really kind of funky Maroon-5-esu number, with just an extra touch of jazz. The boy here has a more down-to-earth voice, which I'd even venture to call smooth. The music would have you somewhere between dancing and tripping away into the lyrics and song. By the second chorus go-around, I was humming the words and dancing across the room while I got ready. Damn I wish I wasn't stuck in work tonight....
"You Boys Lie (Down)" goes right on and proves the description. This is the 90's brought to today at its best, keeping a steady, but poppy pace that many find annoying. As a 20-something-year-old-girl though, I get a kick out of this kind of music. It's the type that always speaks to my kinds as out stand against the guys.
With a just odd-enough voice and light-enough playing, the song "We're Getting Older" gives a generally good impression of More Than Skies. It portrays them as an easy-to-hear band that can keep a good toe-tapping rhythm and use lyrics effectively. The bridge does use a little rock sound to it, that I wasn't expecting, but we generally stay on the light side of Mumford & Sons.
This first band gives the adorable sweet factor to this indie night, being called a group of heart stealers. ... They are pretty cute. Anywhos, they're one of our Brooklyn bands, making their way through the industry as we've seen many do. There's only a few truly good ones in the pool though.
I took a listen to "Dias," which, in the book I'm reading, is a stage or dancing platform in the middle of a courtyard. This, however, is a song that starts off with whistling, joined by a light guitar strum a little farther in. Vocals come in a little after the one minute mark, with a slight grit. The song's got an eerie, angry feel to it, but in a very cool way. The sound comes across as one that would be kickin' to hear live and rock out to. I certainly want to hear more, especially if they can keep making California sounds work with a old player piano sound.
"Pick Yourself Up" is the song that displayed on the bottom of their site when I pulled the picture. There's a bunch of eerie echo that you usually only hear in the studio, so I'd sort of be interested to see how this translates to a show. I'd call it... trance pop rock? Is that a thing. Hell, if we're talking eclectic indie, I'd say this sure works. It's something different, made by a group that consistently looks to be having fun making it.
So the Soundcloud site we're given is all credited just to Jody, but Michael's in the pictures, so we'll assume it's them together. "Mercury Rising" is the intro track for us tonight. It's very quiet, with slight, sweet harmonies between to two before the guitar comes in. It's a song on the sunshine and breeze of the day, with a voice that tries very hard to carry that notion. The words are probably what's important, but the impact is lost without heavy concentration. It's not until the two sing together again that the words have effect - all the more reason to keep them together!
"An Ape Like Me" is the first song given to listen to, and I have to say, it just sounds like a bunch of instruments warming up for quite some time. About a minute in, things pick up and we're finally getting into some instrumental scar jazz. Then, as quickly as it finally started, it ends. Not much of a one song impression, I know - but there's got to be more to the live performance!
The song I'm judging off of is "After Your Gone," which is this brilliant combo of jazz and bluegrass, with at least half of the elements sound homemade. Even the vocal treatment in the recording sounds right off an old cylinder. Love the recording method, and I hope this carries into their live sound too!