Monday’s show was Garrison Starr and Anne McCue opening up for Thea Gilmore at Iota. I knew Garrison Starr from her song “Superhero” a couple years back. She was decent, but I didn’t feel the urge to get her CD. Anne McCue was a very small Australian singer/songwriter/guitarist who made me pay attention with her blistering take on Hendrix’s “Voodoo Chile (Slight Return)”. She went from blues to folk to rock, good set. I kept hearing about Thea Gilmore from Neil Gaiman: “I think Thea Gilmore is excellent, I love her approach, her passion and the way that she uses words – she’s probably the smartest songwriter that England has produced since Elvis Costello.” And she was excellent – my inital impression was a weird mix of Milla, Tori and Dar. Worth passing up Dream Theater that night even.
Thursday, going to see The Bobs and the Austin Lounge Lizards at The Barns Of Wolf Trap. The Bobs are an acappella comedy group in the tradition of Da Vinci’s Notebook (Richard ‘Bob’ Greene has been the producer on all the DVN CDs). I think the Austin Lounge Lizards are a band with comedy stylings, but I’m not sure, because their web site has NO sound clips! How can you have a music site without sound? Ok, rant over.
Sunday, Liz Phair returns to headline a sold out show at the 9:30 Club with Rachael Yamagata and Wheat. We saw Liz there last summer, but Jason Mraz was headlining and she only got an hour long set. Hopefully she’ll be able to play a lot longer this time, especially since it’s the last show on her tour.