stephen franke last night [ottawa]

[meggo]

big thank you to all the bands who played and todd and the bar and the whole universe, i only made it over to see stephen franke and they were awesome!!! i love those guys. they look so happy when they play, AND they're super friendly and nice in real life! i hope they come back to ottawa soon, and i hope they get kinda rich so they don't have to drive here if they don't want to. cheers!

[Velvet]

All three bands were great last night, but my biggest surpise was realising that Russell was playing drums with CHUNGA. Best 4/4 rock beat ever.

Boy did I get drunk last night.

[bradm]

Wow. Who took the band I saw open for The Slip (twice) and switched them with the third act on Saturday night? Because the Stephen Franke And Noises From The Toolshed set on Saturday seemed to be from a band transformed. They whipped it out on us, bigtime.

Chunga also impressed me. It was flat-out make-it-up-as-you-along improv, and you got the feeling that the band was capable of decimating us if they so desired. It might have been a bit more intense/fun if the jams had had recognizable destinations, but that doesn't detract from what they did. And Velvet's right: the drummer was sick, playing so well, but so lightly, you really had to pay attention to see/hear what he was doing.

As near as I can tell, The Crowd set a record for most members (11; I counted) on stage at Dekcuf, ever. The only one who got shuffled onto the floor was the keyboard player, which left four horns, three singers, one guitar, one bass, one drummer, and one conga player on stage. And the music they played was fun; not challenging, not experimental, and entirely recognizable (read: cover/classic tunes only), but a lot of fun. And I give The Crowd respect for actually having a stage show, including synchronized horn section moves, and singers who know how to shake what they have.

As much as I would have liked to have been at BNB, logistically, it just wasn't possible, but I don't regret having seen the whole night at Dekcuf.

Aloha,

Brad

[thatpatguy]

Thanks Brad, and big thanks to Velvet who made the whole thing go down.. killer show, I loved my first Stephen Franke experience and I hope it won't be my last. Chunga was killer and for personal reasons it was great to see Rob Frayne again.

Big thanks to all who made it down to even catch the last song of our set, but to those who chose BNB for the first part of the evening I have no hard feelings

If you missed The Crowd on Saturday night though you can check us out this Thursday at The Rainbow

Awesome night Saturday night, and super cool to meet Bouche, GentleMonkey and (was it Sunshine I met? sorry.. can't remember your board name). I love putting faces to names.

so umm yeah.. killer.. rock on

[Ms.Huxtable]

Every time Stephen Franke is in town, I have had conflicting plans. Now that I have finally caught him, I'm kicking myself for ever missing a show. It won't happen again that's for sure.

About 30 seconds into their set, Mike slides in next to me at our booth, grabs his camera, kisses me on the cheek and says "I'm dancin' tonight baby." So right away, we both knew it was going to be killer.

I loved their presence on the stage, their huge smiles, the professionalism of the set, no long pauses in between songs, they made the most of their one set, and they had really well crafted endings to their songs. Very tight.

They even played Robert Randolph's "I Need More Love Everyday". Anyone who knows me, knows I love this song!!!

Great show, but for some reason, it really had my head pounding the next day. Ouch.