show review: Porlolo cd Release!

Porlolo CD release party with: Bad Weather California, Wentworth Kersey, Sorellina and the dancing Team Firefox.
Friday 18 July 2008, Hi-Dive, Denver

by Linda Ruth Carter

Cd release shows are always hold a little more excitement than any other. It’s kind of like a birthday celebration. (New songs are born and here’s this shiny document to prove it.) Friday at the Hi-Dive was definitely a celebration of Porlolo’s second full length release, Meadows.

This show was fun. If you read no further, just know that much is true. I’ve not kept it a secret that Porlolo is one of my all-time favorites, inside or outside of Denver, and I’ve been looking forward to the release of this cd for the past year or so, ever since I started hearing the first versions of the songs on it being performed. And Friday I got to be there.

As the rainbow unicorn cake on the merchandise table read: Porlolo believes in you. And from the people spilling in the door of the Hi-Dive, lots of people believe in Porlolo too. Present were not only the usual crowd of Hi-Dive regulars, but people who’d made a four hour drive from Gunnison just to be there.

Opening the evening was Sorellina, who is the Anna half of the duo cellists of Matson Jones. Though I couldn’t make out a great deal of the lyrics, I’d characterize Sorellina’s songs as being of the feminine singer-songwriter sort. Even the buzzy and a little too bright sound of a cello turned up loud at the Hi-Dive couldn’t hide that this girl has a lovely voice, and can play that cello to pieces. I’d like to hear her in a place where the sound is more conducive to what she is doing, but I was glad for the introduction.

Next up was the eight member dance troupe known as Team Firefox. Donning spandex, leg warmers, and glow sticks as necklaces, bracelets and anklets, Team Firefox danced a coordinated choreographed number to “Never Let Me Down” by Depeche Mode. The stage was too small for this performance so they used the whole floor from the half-wall back to the wall and from the stage almost back to the little stage in the rear. It was fun to watch, though I had to stand on a chair to see. I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything like it in the Hi-Dive. I mean, they were really dancing. But they had the crowd watching, smiling, clapping, and perhaps trying to remember some of those dance moves too.

With smiles on faces from the cheerful dancing, next came the debut of Wentworth Kersey. I was one of the fortunate early kids to get a copy of their disc along with my new Porlolo (and a copy of Roger Green’s newest too.) Pretty awesome.

If Wentworth Kersey sounds oddly familiar for a debut band, it should. This is the musical project of Joe Kersey Sampson (A Dog Paloma) and Jeffrey Wentworth Stevens (George and Caplin) and if you like either or both of these people’s prior musical releases, you will likely dig this new collaborative set of songs. I did. After a couple songs Wentworth Kersey retired from the stage and joined the crowd to listen to featured band of the evening.

Porlolo said they chose to go on before Bad Weather California so they could sit back afterwards and enjoy hearing their friends play. Having heard a few of the pre-released songs off Meadows already, people were already calling out requests, many of them for “Animals” an extraordinarily catchy poppy sounding song sung with the saddest most tear-jerking lyrics, simultaneously hitting your emotions in two places at once. It’s fabulous.

No two times I can recall have I seen the exact same set of musicians accompanying Erin Roberts, though I believe I’ve seen her solo more than once. The cast of supporting players have many amazing repeat performers and whomever of her friends that accompany, I’ve always heard an enjoyable set. Whatever the line-up, the songs always seem to sound just right. On this night, accompanying Erin were: the overall-wearing guitar-sorcerer Roger Green; the ever consistent and copacetic drummer, Xandy Whitesel; the lovely and heart-stirring stringed sounds of Bela Karoli: Julie Davis on upright bass and Carrie Beeder on violin; and the talented songstress Kate Magnus (Placerville) on guitar, electric bass, and a hand-held keyboard. They played a few songs from Storm and Season, but mostly performed a nice long set of songs from Meadows. Song after song, the listeners smiled and cheered. Did I already say it was fun? I’m writing these words two days later and I’m still smiling thinking about it all.

Bad Weather California took the stage to send off the night. Chris Adolf is another Denver songwriter that has been known to take the stage either solo or with a different arrangement of musicians from show to show, but for some time now he’s had the stable line-up of Xandy Whitesel, Joe Sampson and Adam Baumeister making Bad Weather California an identifiable group. But things haven’t gotten stuck in any rut. Indeed there is always a vibe of unpredictability with a Bad Weather California performance. Lyrics are elastic and verses change from show to show, like the songs have a life of their own and have to be wrangled somehow to get them out in the air. But the chorus is familiar enough that the crowd is often chanting along in communal song. That might sound corny if you haven’t been there, but it is pure fun. Believe it.

show review: Moonspeed, The Wheel, Ross Etherton

reposted from the notorious Donnybrook Writing Academy:

Show Reviews | Moonspeed
By The Truth • Jun 30th, 2008 • Category: Headlines from the Manor, Show Reviews

Show Review: Moonspeed, The Wheel, Ross Etherton
Saturday 28 June 2008 at the Hi-Dive, Denver
by Linda Ruth Carter
Photos by Laurie Scavo



The up-side of having established a musical reputation in town is that you can fill the place up with your new band’s public debut. The down-side, well, hang with me and we’ll get to that.

I was pretty excited about Saturday’s show for a number of reasons. One, there was no shortage of talented people scheduled to take the stage. Two, Denver being the relatively small musical scene that it is, I’ve become friends with many of these people and it’s always nice to see them. Three, two out of the three acts scheduled to perform would mostly be playing stuff I’d not heard before. And four, the thematically unified line-up (in that all three acts have a considerable reputation with their other bands preceding them,) promised to provide an interesting dynamic to the evening.



Walking around outside before the show we caught Ross Etherton in the parking lot behind the Hi-Dive, on the porch of the Theater on Broadway, rehearsing, writing down some last minute lyrics and figuring out his set list. It felt a privilege, getting that exclusive and personal preview, seeing him fuss over what songs he should play. And later, inside, Etherton brought that same inclusiveness and friendliness onto the stage, sharing stories about the songs with all who were listening. Then I felt twice-privileged. Some songs were familiar old favorites to Red Cloud West fans. Other songs, like the endearing lullaby for his new baby girl, are gems that surely will shine all the more with time and the polish of more performances. I’m looking forward to listening.

The Wheel, I’ve probably seen at least half a dozen times by now, either by himself, or with the accompaniment of violin and keyboard. The songs are beautiful in either incarnation and although by now I know to expect it, the first couple songs I’m still blown away by what a great voice and sense of delivery Rateliff brings. The songs feel like they have a strong sense of central character and I find myself listening carefully for the story. Perhaps I should listen more lightly next time though because after about four songs, I’m tired. Like when I pile my plate high with good food, eat too much and feel overstuffed and sleepy.



Moonspeed got all eleven members settled on stage, seated in a kind of orchestral manner. I’m sorry I don’t have everyone’s last names but here’s how it looked: The two drummers, James and Kit were mirrored in the back and flanked on either side by the synthesizers: Darren to the left, Shannon Stein to the right. Stage left featured the three guitarists, I believe it was Ryan, Jim and Matthew on two acoustic and one electric. Stage right sat Adam on bass, and in front of Shannon, Hayley Helmerick on melodica and Doug Spencer on various percussive elements: tambourine, triangles and wind chimes. Center of it all sat Jeff Suthers on vocals and guitar with his signature sounding trade secret pedals. But what did Moonspeed sound like? Not surprisingly, big. And the sound man (I think it might’ve been Xandy) deserves a medal for making everyone clear and audible.

Definitely, Moonspeed wears the influences of bands cited on their Myspace like My Bloody Valentine and Angels of Light. And while Moonspeed is not exactly blazing any new musical trails, they do seem to be having a good time making their own trip down the road, and gauging from the crowd of listeners I witnessed, it would seem they’ve got a good number of fans happy to follow them.

And now we get around to the down-side of the debut: it’s difficult to not bring Bright Channel performance expectations to the show. I tried to keep in mind that this was Moonspeed’s public debut, and though they didn’t quite have the tightly crafted delivery of oft-rehearsed songs, everybody onstage did remarkably very well listening to each other and keeping things woven together pretty well, if a little loosely. Should be a good time keeping up with where it all goes.

Tagged as: , Angels of Light, Bright Channel, Hi-Dive, Monofog, Moonspeed, My Bloody Valentine, Nathaniel Rateliff, Red Cloud West, Ross Etherton, The Wheel

CD review: Bad Luck City - Adelaide (2008)

"I am stealth, I am secret, I've got a cover and I'm going to keep it."

So goes the line in Bad Luck City's song "Stealth." But it's hard to imagine this band's music really staying secret any more than one could imagine anybody staying seriously undercover "hunting ETs and chupacabras...by moonlight and candelabra."

Like many of the songs on the album, "Stealth" is serious and spooky, but balanced with a smart sense of humour, albeit something of a tragic sort of giggles. Light and dark take turns so deftly they almost seem the same thing. "Stealth" is about a self-proclaimed demon hunter, drink by drink and verse by verse, becoming more blurred as the story moves along until the demon and hunter blur into union. The layering of Hayley Helmerick's (Monofog) and Dameon Merkl's vocals brings a captivating and insidious execution to this song. But with no less than ten guaranteed FCC censor's heart attacks, this song won't be sailing the public airwaves.

From the slow and haunting melodies to the heart pumping, crescendo rising ones, every song on Adelaide is threaded with a delightful sort of creepiness. Weaving the line between recitative and ballad, the lyrics deliver stories of a longing stalker in "Suffer the Day," the forlorn "Widow Frances Colver," a regretful morning after "The Night Before" (a great cover of the Lee Hazlewood song) and the tragic tear-jerker end of a race horse "Distaff." All these, vignettes and snapshots of dark but lightly familiar characters and scenes. The music likewise, inseparably surrounds and carries the words. Even the artwork on the cover reflects Adelaide's setting of mysterious and dramatic places captured in a manner of playful yet elegant pencil-line accuracy.


With six people in the band not counting the additional vocalists and players of piano, trumpet and such on the recordings, you might think there'd be some unruly scrapping for attention and center spotlight. But no. Musical deference prevails. Pair that musical courtesy and talent with the remarkably clean mixing of sound and everything comes out sounding great.

Photo courtesy of Bad Luck City.
Album cover artwork designed by Jonathan Till.

CD review: Bela Karoli, Furnished Rooms

Double-posted at The Donnybrook Writing Academy



Bela Karoli is complicated simplicity, a paradox. But this is a band that makes songs out of Emily Dickinson and T.S. Eliot poems for goodness sake. So complicated simplicity makes a kind of perfect sense.

Furnished Rooms, Bela Karoli’s debut release, will make you pay attention and listen to familiar sounds like they were new.

In the first track, “Snow,” the rich and warm signature upright bass sound of Julie Davis is followed by the artful bow strokes of Carrie Beeder’s violin and then by the recognizable airy tones of Brigid McAuliffe’s accordion. The music is as inventive and playful as you might suspect with that admittedly unusual orchestration.

The sense of warmth and palpable life that reside in these twelve songs will make you feel the air passing through vocal cords, in and out of accordion bellows, bringing oxygen to blood pumping through arms that move bows, fingers that pluck strings. I could wax on in this vein but then paradox arises again. There in the background is a machined rhythm of programmed drum tracks. Like in the song “Invertebrate” where the lyrics, “we are soft cells; we have metal shells” suggest a duality, the songs themselves also feel as if existing as a cellular life of their own though encased in that hard and cold shell. It’s a compelling contrast, though I have to admit I miss the presence of a human drummer.

Bela Karoli is like nothing you’ve heard before. Not exactly. Like their version of “Summertime” you’ll recognize it as familiar, sort of, but it’s not an instantaneous recognition. Like no other, this is a furnished room you’ll find yourself glad to be sitting in.