[Note: This is my new format for reviewing shows. I basically answer the question, "Would I go see this artist/band the next time he/she/they are around?"]
And the answer for Damion Suomi is HELL YES! He opened for Sanders Bohlke tonight in the front room at The Lyric, which is called the Red Bar. It’s a cool, intimate setting with a pretty small capacity (100 or so?), and it was the perfect venue for tonight’s show.
Damion has a great stage presence and voice and is backed by Shivawn McCarthy on violin, who has quite the presence of her own. He did something that I love and saw recently when Mark Adamec of Sleeping Bulls did it at the Music and Movies Night at The Lyric a couple months ago.
I’ve described that moment to some friends of mine as one of the top 20 music moments in Oxford that I’ve experienced. On that night, following two other great acts, Stuck in the Mud and Tate Moore and the Cosmic Door, Mark grabbed his chair and guitar from the big stage, moved down in front of said stage with no microphone, and within a minute’s time had everyone’s full attention. And I mean FULL attention, as everybody found a seat, and you could have heard a pin drop in the place as Mark belted out song after amazing song.
Tonight, Damion Suomi, after a couple songs, left the stage and placed himself a couple feet from the closest spectators (me among them), and proceeded to give us a show that in a fare world would only be reserved for the most special weekend night of the month. But this was a TUESDAY, and well, sometimes life isn’t fare in a good way. We got way more than we deserved on a Tuesday night, I do believe, and we are not complaining. Great vocals and songwriting and the ability to command a room. There was even a sing-along to end the set.
Sanders Bohlke and crew then took the stage, and as I mentioned in last week’s Local Voice column (which I do need to start posting here again, sorry), his recent backing band is phenomenal. Lyon Chadwick (violin), Dave Woolworth (upright bass), Sean Kirkpatrick (vocals, guitar), and Ian Kirkpatrick (drums) provide the perfect compliment to Sanders’ amazing talent.
So yeah, good Tuesday.
Marc Adamec at The Lyric 5.14.09
Damion Suomi at The Lyric’s Red Bar 6.17.09
Filed under: Entertainment, Music, Next time?, Show Reviews
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