October 29, 2007

CMJ Music Festival

October 18th

Every year the CMJ festival (College Music Journal) invades New York for a week. There's tons of great music and a lot of it for free. I went to The Living Room with a friend to see Jim Bianco.

There were a few opening acts, one being Holly Conlan. She was a good singer, but I was bored by her set.

The second guy was Brian Wright. He said he had recently left a great band to become "another asshole with a guitar". While I wasn't really amazed by him, he was certainly above asshole level. But then again, I'm always impressed when a person can sing, and play guitar and harmonica.

I had never heard of Jim Bianco prior to going to this show. But he was a really great stage performer with some interesting tunes. First thing I noticed, he makes really strange faces when he sings.

Second thing I noticed, he was adorable. More men should wear hats.

Third thing of note, the dude on the left played piano, clarinet, flugal, accordion, back-up vocals and pulled off a cool looking hat! That's talent.

Overall, I'm glad I dragged my tired butt out to see this show. Jim's gravely boozy voice and talented band made for a really nice evening of free music.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Is the bathroom at The Living Room still as gross as it was 5+ years ago (geez, it has been a LONG time since I frequented New York regularly)! -Eileen P.