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It was pretty much a full house at the Tomahawk Room in Chippewa Falls for Looking Glass Down, a new duo made up of two local musicians. Lucas Fischer, best known for his band Luke Fischer and the Coolhand Saints which frequently plays at the James Sheeley House. And, Thomas Nutting who is a popular solo artist around the area. The combination of the two was nothing short of outstanding!
I can't say it enough. We are so lucky here in the Chippewa Valley to have so many musicians and so many venues. Whenever I travel I realize what I have at home. Going from here, where I can catch a live band within fifteen miles of my house any day of the week, except for maybe Monday and Tuesday, to other places where you are lucky to find music even on Saturday night. Well, it is an eye opener.
If I didn't have a pretty good handle on where Gordon Lightfoot is in life, I might have scrambled for my smartphone and a picture. I would have been thinking maybe Gordon was hiding out in the Chippewa valley under an alias. Because Thomas Nutting has that Lightfoot sound. Both through his voice and acoustic twelve string. It was really quite amazing.
Between the two, their actions and facial expressions, it seemed like they hadn't actually played together all that many times. Tom would start some song, and Luke would seem to figure out his chords on the fly. Then, the two would play with Tom playing the brunt of the melody with Luke filling in and making his music accent and dance around what Tom played. Some players can't really pull this off, but these guys had no trouble. Both musicians had great voices and equally happy no matter who was singing.
Musical high points? Many. Sympathy for the Devil by the Rolling Stones. Free Falling and Mary Jane's Last Dance by Tom Petty. Wild World by Cat Stevens. But, I really feel like they did their best on the Marshall Tucker Band with Can't You See. I include a short clip of it. The Lucas Fischer solo was nothing short of stellar. The vocals, well timed and flawless. It was a great cover on a song I like. Made my night!
I felt like Lucas Fisher did great the first two sets. By the third set though I think he was having trouble being constrained in the folk/classic music box. Sometimes in the third set, I felt like I was having a Michael J. Fox, Back to the Future moment. Give a listen to the Hotel California video I shot and either you will agree with me or not.
My slight complain over Thomas Nutting's performance was countered somewhat by later discussions with The Wife. While we were having a post show discussion we tried to decide where artistic license comes into play. Because Tom sings some amazing vocals. Like I said, he could sing Lightfoot so well, I could have wondered if he was Lightfoot on the verses of his songs. And yet most of the songs, the chorus he altered. I found that troubling. More so than she did. I asked 'why would he do this?' and she felt like it made it his. However she did allow it made it harder to sing along to those songs you know by heart.
But this aside, it was some great music. I had seen Luke with the Coolhands before at the Sheeley, but had never seen Tom. The Wife had seen them both and recognized the music and the voices immediately. She told me that she had suspected it, and that is why she had dressed so conservatively. I looked at her. Four inch heels on her knee length boots, thigh-high socks, mini skirt, tight t-shirt, wrist warmers and fluorescent hot pink hair. Uh huh. It just screams church lady.
It was also rather amusing, particularly as you read this now and see me grousing and picking nits about Looking Glass Down, the chorus or the over riffing. But as soon as the final set was over at the Tomahawk Room we hopped into the styling' minivan and rolled down the street to Every Buddys Bar & Grill where the band Qwickfire was finishing their set. Now I heard Qwickfire just a couple of weeks ago. And, I liked them at the time. But it was a whole different deal from what I had just heard. From attempted musical perfection with Looking Glass Down, (that I still bitched about) to Qwickfire, a sloppy party band. Fun, but it was enough of a paradigm shift to nearly cause whiplash. And, I think I appreciated Looking Glass Down all the more because of it.
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