Took a stroll down Ninth Street for a sandwich, a canolli, and some people watching and found myself at the Connie's Ric Rac stage close to Pat's and Geno's (and near the great Rim Cafe). Caught the second half of a quality set by the Great Unknown, a rocking local acoustic outfit based in West Philly. They are fronted by the enthusiastic Todd Henton, who has a great voice and real skills on the mouth organ but the annoyingly affected style of playing with a trouser leg pulled up like he's about to ride a bicycle. The band is tight and rootsy, and they always seem like they are having fun, which is pretty infectious. A good outdoorsy band. Their next Philly show is June 27th at the Gorgas Park Festival in Manayunk.
The Great Unknown were followed by an act I hadn't heard before but will be sure to check out again: Bevin Caulfield and her band. Bevin is a beautiful singer, with a sexy and emotive voice and a good backing band. The drummer kept almost a hip hop beat that suited the songs. Bevin played a solid acoustic guitar and another pretty girl, perhaps her sister judging by looks, added some well considered backing vocals. I see from her myspace page (which has a link for a good cover of the admittedly over-covered l.cohen song "hallelujah") that she has a show May 22nd at the Tin Angel. I have a gig that night or I'd be there. There are also some other area shows on her calendar.
Bevin Caulfield live
The guitarist that played was Ross Bellenoit and he's the shiz.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.rossbellenoit.com/