It was fun hearing Mike Perry. It always is. Singer/songwriter of the honest wisconsin life. But, I will be quite honest with you, I was there to see QuinnElizabeth for the first time. Over the past months I have seen their name show up on more and more showbills. But, never anything on a night that would work out for me. Tonight I made it. And, I am so very glad I did.

Mike Perry and the Longbeds on stage at the State Theater

The sound was flawless. The only complaint, the mandolin was fairly close to over powering in the first few songs. The guy on the mixing board must be a fan of the instrument. Otherwise the sound was great. I think Molly, particularly when she is playing electric fiddle, is a excellent addition to the band. I love the sound of a solid body electric violin in bands of any sort really. Here, with Mike's music it was the icing on the cake.

Musical high points? I would have to say, Sissy Moaned. It had so much feeling, so much sadness, and such a nice hard edge to it. Being there, standing in front of that stage, it was the song I liked it the best. But for sheer humm-ability, Still Alive. The day after the concert and I have been thinking about that song all day long. It has great "gets stuck in your head" potential. Still Alive, which I also caught on video, was an extremely exciting performance. I pulled that video off my camera, looked at it on my computer screen and said, "no", because you know what? I really rate it just too darn cool. You should have been there.

View Mike Perry and the Long Beds

View QuinnElizabeth

Nicholas Fennel (dark video, sorry.)

The video I have got posted here has a couple of great band member solos. In particular, a great solo by Molly on electric violin.  (editors note: Dec 26th 2009, mention on Sneezingcow.com pointed out the video links weren't showing up right.  Now corrected.  Enjoy.)

QuinnElizebeth at the State Theater

But running close behind Elizabeth were the other two sisters and their ability to harmonize their voices well. The sound from the guitars was crystal clear, and very bright. Jerissa's new song, first time performed on stage was fantastic. Jerrika was able to maintain a steady stream of humor. Humor it seemed which was funnier to us in the audience than it was to her sisters. The between song bickering was such a classic element of sisterhood that it was in itself very entertaining. I would rate QuinnElizebeth a must see. I know I will be wanting to see them again.

Seldom an article goes by that I don't find a little something to complain about. Here I was, in near perfect sound, fantastic lighting, smoke free. But the fact is, three songs from the end the Wife was feeling like she was going to pass out. She had to break for fresh air. Another friend I came with, had fallen over the weekend and knew she couldn't stand for the show, she had to wrangle a chair from the managment. --Which was not easy. Volume One, I see what you are doing here. You are recreating for us the loose structure of Phoenix Park where we can mill around. And, I thank you for that, I really do. But really, come on, no chairs? I am not saying you have to set them up and line them all up in little rows. But how about a couple of big racks of chairs along one wall? We can pull'em down and create our own social groups with them. But I think we need to be able to sit down.

I detected both Freaks and Geeks in the crowd. Among them, none other than herself most royal, Joanna Dane, Chapter President and High Queen. Great to see such good representation from the gang.

Coming out of the show I was feeling a little over heated myself. It was a two block walk to our cold van. Luckily, this is Wisconsin and there was a bar along the way. We slid into the HayMarket Grill for even more live music. Nicholas Fennel, an east coast transplant to the valley was playing a cover set for Brian Bethke. Brian lost his voice yesterday and cancelled there for the evening.

Nicholas Fennel who plays guitar for the band Dead Dogs played a good couple of sets. There were a few songs where he delved into Jazz. Not my thing at all. If you are a jazz fan, I expect this would be right up your ally. The rest of the time were some good originals, obscure, and even one not-obscure-at-all cover song. I felt his musical highpoint was a song that was maybe called Old Number 7, or Thank You Jack Daniels. Great song. Nicholas had a good voice to do battle against the acoustics of the HayMarket Grill.

Unexpected treat of the evening, at the Haymarket Grill, we got three songs from Leiah Webb, who got pulled on stage by her friend Nicholas. The songs were particularly heartfelt tonight. Leiah, maybe not expecting to be on stage, didn't have her notebook cheat sheet. The songs tonight were the best I have heard her. Wonderful surprise to see her on stage.

As a final comment, not musically related, I had a couple of pints of Summit Red Ale. Good beer! Very hoppy.

Nicholas Fennel's myspace page is at: http://www.myspace.com/125377164
QuinnElizabeth's myspace page is at: http://www.myspace.com/quinnelizabeth
Michael Perry and the Long Beds have a web site where you can check their schedule, buy their music and t-shirts: http://www.thelongbeds.com/ The band's album, Headwinded is available in iTunes. Reading the credits to that album it is interesting that a couple of the members of the Long Beds have gone off to get all famous, Justin Vernon and Phil Cook. And, Brian Moen, now drummer for Laarks is getting ready to.

Hits: 830

Comments (1)

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QuinnElizabeth Band Representative

This is such a wonderful review! Thank you for taking the time to review my sisters and I! It was a pleasant surprise when I ran into this review, simply because my sisters and I do not have any official reviews. On behalf of my sisters, we're honored you have become our first reviewer! Happy Holidays.
Elizabeth from QuinnElizabeth

Elizabeth Steans , December 16, 2009 | url

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