black-haired girl

This was a good weekend, musically. Saturday I went to see Jesse Malin, who is a good person to listen to if you’ve ever wondered what would happen if Bruce Springsteen and Ryan Adams had a baby who became a singer who wore extremely tight jeans. The guy works with both Bruce Springsteen and Ryan Adams quite a bit so I guess the similarity makes sense. He played at the very un-rock-and-roll time of 6 pm but then I guess he rock-starred it up a bit by not showing up on stage for an hour and a half. He does this thing near the end of the show which I guess is his calling card, which is asking the audience to sit down on the floor and sing along to a cover song with him. To bring everyone together, I guess. Perhaps this was uncool of me, but I squatted. I know too many people who have thrown up in that bar to be comfortable sitting.

Tonight I went to see Antje Duvekot and Ellis Paul. Both are folk singers. Antje Duvekot is kind of like if Patty Griffin and Patty Larkin had a baby but the baby was born in Germany. Ellis Paul is…well, I’m running out of ways to describe potential musical parents. Lookswise, it might be kind of like if Carson Kresssley and Sean Penn had a baby. I don’t know. Both of them put on a good show. They’re both the type that sing confessional songs with acoustic guitar and while I love that, it might be hard for me to describe them in a way that you could differentiate them from other folk singers. Antje Duvekot (I didn’t hear anyone pronounce her name the same way twice so I can’t help you there) had a song in a Bank of America commercial and Ellis Paul has had a few songs in Farrelly Brothers movies.

I was sitting at the bar next to these two girls, who might have been sisters. One was married and one had a boyfriend. Only the boyfriend was there. I spent a lot of time between sets trying to figure these girls out. They talked about topics as diverse as their pedicures and the cost of Maker’s Mark at various locales across the country. The only time I really heard the boyfriend talk was when he told his girlfriend that she looked much better with make-up than without. At this point I snorted beer out of my nose but I tried to cover it up, like it was a sneeze. Friends, it is painful to have beer come out of your nose. And a waste of good beer.

Anyways, if you are interested, here are some song samples from YouTube:
Jesse Malin singing with The Boss:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=izaexqdC29c

Antje Duvekot singing:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=AKnTpRvdQJI

Ellis Paul singing:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=HC8Ndis1ucU