STEVE2.NET

What fun to hang around the Lakewood Phoenix with Adam Smith and the Bachelors Hall – yep, those guys are a hoot. There weren’t that many folks at the Phoenix – and that’s par for the course at that particular café venue. In my experience the only time the Phoenix really gets ‘packed’ for a band is when it’s a punk act that attracts the local teens. I have very little interest if any in that particular sector of the Cleveland music scene. I am after all well over 30, and I don’t mind playing at all to only a few people at the Phoenix – it’s relaxing and mellow. The only other exception to the generally applicable mellow rule at the Lakewood PHO is the Open Mic Tuesday with host XELA - ordinarily that scene crowded – so if you ARE looking for crowds at the PHO, then show up on Tuesday nights.

In regards to Adam Smith and the Bachelors Hall, I have heard Adam play solo, and I have hung out with Adam, but I have only heard the band play together now three or four times. I enjoy the levity of the band act - so much so that I have asked Adam and his guys to jam with me in the near future, I hear compatibility between our acts and I am eager to capitalize on that edge. I hope to work up a few of my originals with Paul, Gary and Adam along with a couple of jazz standards, those guys seem to think it’s a pretty good idea, so now all we need to do is ‘get it together’.

If you didn’t already know, The Bachelors Hall recently completed a CD with 7 songs on it and if you have never heard them play together ‘live’ than the CD is a great way to introduce yourself to the music. Getting the CD without going out to hear the band is a kind of a catch 22 because the Hall guys don’t have a label, they don’t have a manger, and I don’t think you can find the CD in any music store – you pretty much have to go to a show to get the CD – it’s one of those low budget DIY artist things. Low budget or not, the CD sounds really good – recorded on a four track tape deck not a hard disk. The recordings sound very ‘live’ – I think the band performed the material together live – or some of it – the overall sound is very roomy and organic (you know, lively) – and I really like it that way. If I had to criticize something (and I do – what fun is it to say only good things about the art of ones peers – heh), then I gotta point out the obvious: The bass was recorded straight too (line in) and it sounds sterile within the context of the live drums and guitars, so much for constructive criticism. Hearing and seeing the band play out is the preferable experience, with the live experience you get to watch the guys have fun and if you’re lucky you get to see and hear Adam play his freaking blinking Theremin do dad while simultaneously strumming away on his Fender and blowing on a Kazoo!! Oh yeah – catch em live at the HI-FI TOMORROW NIGHT!

Until next time – email me, OK? By!