Tilly and the Wall!

Hello, gentle reader. It's time for another in my very infrequent series of concert reports!!

Last night at Cat's Cradle I saw one of the best shows I've seen in a long time. Headliner band was Tilly and the Wall, and they were the biggest, happiest musical surprise I've had in a while. They've got great girl harmonies (from Neely and Kiana) like the Donna's, only more upbeat. They've got a tap-dance precussionists (Jamie) who must be seen (and heard) to be believed. The guitarist (Derek) added in a different vocal range (his solo vocals sound notably like Coner Oberst of Bright Eyes) and great guitar work. And the keyboard guy (Nick) played well and, despite his tendency to always stay out of the limelight, actually spoke on the mic long enough last night to get a beer. Good man. The start of their set was plagued with microphone and patch problems - I think they strung 3 new microphones and 4 new cables during the first 5 songs of their set. Kudos to Dan (their sound / tech guy) for handling it all so well. I won't do the set detail here, partly because I didn't know any of their songs well enough to id them during the show, but suffice to say that the place was pretty well packed with a happy crowd that was singing and dancing along and more thana few knew the words to all the songs. Great band. Go see them if you get the chance.

The mid-liner band in the show was DeVotchKa who played a high-energy set of quirky, international-inspired music. It's hard not to get at least a little cranked listening to their stuff, and they have the hottest sousaphone player I've ever seen. Their music is definately worth a listen. First opening band was David Dondero. I only caught the last few songs of his set, but he had good guitar talents and an expressive voice. His songs seemed a little gloomy and down, and I was a little disappointed when after he offered to play one more song, he picked up his stuff and left the stage.

Tags: music, Tilly and the Wall