i attended a temendous night of (mostly) local music last night @ skull alley, a great little dive joint (music venue and screen printing shop) with great sound and an attentive audience of music lovers, musicians and the tragically hip.
the evening kicked off with the heavy bass lines of “ain’t no doubt about it” from the always fun and entertaining “thomas a. minor and the picket line,” the set was culled mostly from their recently released and excellent self titled disc. i have really enjoyed listening to these guys since i discovered their music a year or so ago. they were followed followed by michael baker, half of the philadelphia based “the spinning leaves” (barbara gettes, his partner was called home earlier in the day due to her father having a heart attack saturday morning). michael played about half his set solo and was joined by members of “the picket line” and cheyenne mize for the balance of his set. obviously, due to the circumstances of his partner being gone and other musicians joining in, the setlist was shaken up and a bit loose, but nonetheless, very entertaining and enjoyable. kudos for michael for going “on with the show” and making it work.
the evening was closed-out by the always wonderful, incredibly gifted cheyenne mize, delivering a partial set solo and joined on and off by her “maiden radio” bandmate joan shelley and wax fax drummer, kevin ratterman.
cheyenne split her time on electric guitar, banjo, and keys, interestingly, no fiddle, which she is primarily known for (though she did play fiddle and sing harmony on the picket lines entire set). her set was a nice split of music from her recent release “born lately” and several new songs, including the very nice rocker, “keep it to yourself.” this girl is gonna be big. remember, you heard it here first.
a sweaty dive, good people and great music…perfect way to spend a saturday night.
cheyenne performing “keep it to yourself” from an earlier show @ skull alley
thomas a minor and the picket line (@ ear x-tacy)
more pictures @: http://picasaweb.google.com/bivester
what we need is music 