Grace Potter Concert Experience

When I decide to write about a show, it's about the experience. It's not a review. I bought the ticket because I like the artist. I don't feel compelled to expound on every show I see. This one was special.

I'm also very aware that I hear music differently from most people and don't experience shows like others. I have a few happy places in my life, but nothing brings me joy like a great concert.

Devon Gilfillian opened. Dude can sing. Opened the show with the song he should have closed with, in my opinion. Was good, but some was not really my to my liking.

Then Grace Potter took the stage and the only time I stopped smiling was when she made us all cry.

A little backstory. Grace Potter had effectively decided not to do music anymore after the dissolution of her band, the Nocturnals, her divorce, and ill-fated solo album Midnight. Then she got remarried, had a kid and got the music jones again, much to our benefit. What came of that was her latest album Daylight and subsequent tour. And we should all be grateful.

Grace gave us a healthy dose of songs from the new album, hit all the high notes of her catalog with the Nocturnals along with a couple of covers. She sounded fantastic, her band was great and the cover of Etta James' "I'd Rather Go Blind" as a duet with the aforementioned Devon Gilfillian was superb.

She was very personable, engaging with the audience and going off script (i.e. changing the set list on the fly). She went with the flow. One off script moment, she told the band to GTFOH while she did a solo acoustic song. The tables were turned later.

I've been to a lot of shows. This one was top five. It was that good. 90% of that was Grace Potter and her band, but the crowd was awesome as well. In recent memory, this was the least cell-phoned show I've been to. Everybody was there for the artist and into the music. Sure, everybody got their pic or video, but it wasn't constant.

Speaking of the crowd, off script and going with the flow, three songs were played for the encore. After they finished those three, they did their bows, etc. The crowd was going nuts. Grace mouthed "Wow". The band huddled up, apparently deciding what other song they should do. The band decided they were going to GTFOH and left Grace to do a solo. She said that this was going to be great or the band was going to be fired.

Apparently the band talked her into doing "Release" solo. As she was introducing it she told a story about how it came to be. She was listening, in the bath, to Dolly Parton's version of "I Will Always Love You" and thought she needed a song like that. (Before anyone cries blasphemy, she was not comparing quality, just content, and admitted that this ain't no Dolly song.) She cried. We all cried when she sang it.

Show Experience with Dorothy and Holly West

I went to see Dorothy on 3/9/2018 at the House of Blues in Dallas, TX in the Cambridge Room. Why is the name of the room important? Because there are two rooms at the Dallas House of Blues. The Cambridge Room is the smaller room with a capacity of 250. It was sold out.

This was part of Dorothy's Freedom Tour in which she headlined smaller venues and enlisted local artists from each city to open the show. That night's opener was local Dallas artist Holly West, more on her later.

The crowd was diverse, ranging from teenagers to people at least in their 50's. I fall much closer to the latter category. Being that it was at such a small venue, standing only general admission, there was not a bad place to be. The kids crowded the stage while the older folk hung back.

Holly West took the stage with her three piece band spitting fire with their version of blues rock. West was on bass and all the vocals with the accompaniment of drums and guitar. All three are excellent musicians. Holly's vocals were fantastic. The guitar player had some excellent slide guitar mixed in with his bluesy solos. The drummer. Let's talk about the drummer.

For some reason, he reminded me of Jack Black. He was putting on a show within a show. Throwing his stick in the air and catching it with every opportunity. Standing up between songs to incite the crowd to cheer. Using his foot for cymbal crashes. He was a joy to watch.

Seriously, Dorothy did a service to everyone by picking Holly West to open the show. Aside from the two deeper cut covers by Think Lizzy and Led Zeppelin that West did, I did not know a single song but was into it the entire time. Her EP Mokita is available on streaming services. Check her out if you like Dorothy.

I'm going to talk about Dorothy's music first before I talk about the show. I have been a fan since first hearing the debut album ROCKISDEAD, a swampy, bluesy, sultry hard rock album. I wrote about it here. Dorothy played a few songs from that album, but more than half were from her upcoming album, of which three songs have already been released. From what Dorothy played live, this new album is going to be more diverse and better than the debut. When I don't know the songs and they move me, there is something there.

Dorothy Martin commanded the stage with the grace of Stevie Nicks, the swagger of Robert Plant and the enthusiasm of Grace Potter. This was an old school rock show. No glitz and glam, just a band belting out one banger after another. And so much fun.

Martin looked like she was having fun, from her bouncing around to her between song banter. And she was in control, telling one person in the crowd to shut of the iPhone because the of the light and telling the bartenders to turn of the TVs at the bar because they were distracting her from the crowd. The crowd ate it up.

You always hear a record with great vocals and then when see them live, eh, what tricks did they play in the studio. Not so with Dorothy. Her vocals live are as good as on the record. I appreciate that.

Martin has also assembled a great band behind her. Two guitars, bass and drums. Theme of the night? Excellent musicians. I really enjoyed the guitar solos that you don't get as much anymore. There just aren't the shredders that used to be on every corner in the 80s. And the bass player was channeling his inner Juan Croucier (look it up kids), I'm sure he would have done spins if the stage were bigger.

Admittedly, I haven't been to as many rock shows lately as I have in the past, but this was one of the most fun and best one's I've ever been to. If you get a chance, go see Dorothy live, you won't be disappointed, unless, of course, you just don't like good music. Kidding. But if you like hard rock, they put on a great show.

Chicks That Rock: Grace Potter

Grace Potter and the Nocturnals have been around for a decade. But I just recently found them, so I'm a little late to the game.

A bit eclectic in the catalog, but the rockers are there and they so do rock.

And, she's an accomplished guitarist and keyboard player as well.

Enjoy.

Artist Spotlight: Orianthi

I'm not a critic. I will only post stuff about music that I enjoy. Is it critically celebrated, panned, indifferent? I don't know and more importantly, don't care.

Sometimes you just find something totally by accident and it strikes a chord within you. Such is my current obsession with Orianthi. My daughter is calling me a fangirl. I prefer fanboy. Semantics. But I get what she is saying.

When I find something new (to me) that I like, I need to immerse myself in it for a few days. Just to make sure it's not a fly-by-night infatuation but something that I really enjoy. So, Orianthi, I enjoy.

I don't know a whole lot about her, and I'm not an investigative reporter. But here's what I do know:

Her full name is Orianthi Pangaris and she can shred on the guitar. She's 28 years old and from Australia. She was pegged to play guitar on Michael Jackson's tour before his untimely death. She has played guitar with Alice Cooper's touring band. She has recorded a song with Steven Tyler.

That's enough right there to give her credibility. And all that means squat if the songs don't hold up, right?

Well, the songs hold up. But where they fit is up for debate.

Let me put it this way, Orianthi's solo work is part Taylor Swift, part Grace Potter, part Lzzy Hale, part Katy Perry*, part Eric Johnson, part Jimi Hendrix, part Journey, part Ann and Nancy Wilson (Heart), part Lita Ford.
*I picked Katy Perry because I'm not that familiar with current pop music and she was the first one that came to mind. Could be Demi Lovato. The "Call Me Maybe" chick. Whomever.

I have really enjoyed her latest album Heaven in this Hell. Save for a couple of ultra-poppy tracks, It is very good start to finish. Although, if you get the CD, get the one without the bonus tracks.

The 12 tracks on the non-bonus song CD are mostly quite good. The first three songs on the album all have a bluesy feel to them. As do several other tracks. The blues-based tracks are my favorites.

The song, "How Does That Feel?" could be at home on one of Foreigner's later albums. A couple of songs, if recorded by the right artist (Carrie Underwood? Taylor Swift?) would be a mainstay on current country music radio.

The song "Sex E Bizarre" featuring Steven Tyler would be right at home on any Aerosmith release post Done With Mirrors.

Here is some straight up pop:

Here's the title track from her latest album:

And here she is doing Voodoo Chile live: