Rock and Folk at the Commodore

There is a scene in Season 3 of Buffy when Oz and Willow are at the Bronze, sitting on a couch, completely lost in each other. He caresses her face and kisses her gently when Buffy comes up an interrupts them. It is a simple little scene…signifying how Buffy is alone and always will be…..burden of being the Slayer blah blah blah……really isn’t super important. It is one of my favourite Willow-Oz scenes simply because they are so lost in each other and the rest of the world has fallen away. Sigh. The kind of love I was had before it got all f*cked up……anyways…moving on. The point to this was not to fall into a pit of despair about how love sucks balls. The point (and do you not love how I can relate anything and everything to Buffy?) was to illustrate appropriate forms of PDA.

On Monday night, at the Commodore Ballroom, there was this couple that had no concept of this. They spent the entire 30 minutes before the opening act and most of the actual opening act of the show sucking each other’s face off in a booth. And it was not in a Willow-Oz, I wish I were her; they are so clearly in love kind of way. It was just gross. It was as if they were thirteen years old, drunk for the first time, having no f*cking clue what they are doing. It was nauseating.

Then during the show they were right in my sight line, standing on the dance floor, arms wrapped around each other for the entire set. It was more than that. I can’t really describe it, but it seemed as if they believed their lives depended on their being no more than 2 inches apart, complete with 60% of their bodies touching. Ugh. Sickening and nauseating.

Now onto the important things. The show. I would like to say it was a sold out crowd, but in honesty, it was only about a third full. Very strange as I thought that the headliner was pretty well known. Brett Dennen with Grace Potter & the Nocturnals as the opener. F*cking wicked. A last minute addition to the fall concert series that is my life. I had seen Brett before, a few years ago with Missy Higgins and Mason Jennings. He was good. Very good. Never seen Grace Potter. Can’t recall when I first heard of them.

Grace Potter & The Nocturnals are f*cking amazing. Seriously so good. 6 of them on stage, all in red and black, clearly loving what they do and totally vibing off of each other. In all honesty, this band from Vermont should more well known than they are. Grace’s voice is phenomenal, and she can wail. They reminded me of Janis Joplin with a side of Jefferson Airplane. And their cover of Somebody to Love/White Rabbit was fantastic. They played my favourite song – Apologies – which is slow and soulful. But it was their last song that solidified the amazingness. By the end of the song they were all surrounding the drum kit, playing a different part of the kit. So f*cking good.

Next up was Brett Dennen. Also great. But a completely different vibe from Grace Potter. Where GP were all wild and soulful and totally blew the roof off of the Commodore, Brett is a lot more mellow, cute and endearing to the crowd. He has a very unique look and sound. He looks kinda like Carrot Top, before all the unfortunate surgeries, or Chucky. And sounds somewhat similar to Tracy Chapman. He scats, he shakes his ass, his band is dope. He played all the songs I know and love. Super chill, strangely skinny, very entertaining. An odd duck. But his tunes are catchy and inoffensive, and he is another that should be better known than he currently is.

Short reviews of live shows now seem to be the norm for me. I rarely have the time to write masses on each and every song that is played. Eek! Hope no-one is too concerned about it. I was also camera shy so no pictures or video. Saving it up for Lady Gaga (review and twelve million pics coming later tonite hopefully)

Lemme know if you are heartbroken by this ;)

XO

PS: Screen cap of Buffy courtesy of the amazing peeps at Screencap Paradise