Thursday, April 27, 2017

February 3, 2017 Club Bohemia, Haley Katrin Billy Quill Dionysia Mike Morrissey

 February 3, 2017  Club Bohemia, downstairs at The Cantab Lounge

Haley Katrin 
Billy Quill
Dionysia
Mike Morrissey
A very impressive show on February 3 with Haley Katrin backed by guitarist Adam Sickler – an entertaining mixture of sounds seguing from acoustic to pop rock with a heavy backbeat. Katrin’s authoritative voice punctuated each note with the precision of a pro, but rock and roll enough to let the band drive with a nice ragged edge. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m5gqn18kzCA  Haley’s set consisted of Be Your Girl Skate By Sheep Sugar Water Angel from Montgomery Half Past 3 23 Tinder Hipster Prince.  Shade Tramp from Stains of a Sunflower records and provides the drumming for Haley. Have to get a Sunflower live review up soon.


Also on the bill were Mike Morrissey, Billy Quill and a superb band called Dionysia.  Morrissey’s aching vocal works over interesting guitar weavings, the space in between the strums and the voice play with the imagination in a nice way recalling hit artists Norma Tanega, Tim Buckley and Janis Ian.  It was a complementary diversion from Katrin’s powerful approach, Morrissey using subtleties to make his point, and a good transition for the audience.  Morrissey’s set went from She Smiled, Unseen, Arrive, Heartbeat, Puppets, Hands, Miss June, Fool's Gold, and Rainy Days in that order
Billy Quill’s voice and compositions are drenched in bluesy pop with a solid groove with words that combine insight with introspection.  The instrumentation sometimes dangles in the air, as does his voice, to good effect.


Dionysia played songs from their CD The Breach and issue their musical statement with polish and sometimes lots of angst.  Songs like “Zombie,” “Glory” and “Doorstep” have one-word titles which push the pop envelope with catchy chord changes and clever riffs.  (Joe Viglione)

Melissa Weikart at Club Bohemia Thursday April 27, 2017

Melissa Weikart at Club Bohemia  Thursday April 27, 2017

Downstairs  Kate Taylor-Mighty, Rollo Tomasi Quartet, Melissa Weikart

Upstairs – The Chicken Slacks


Though originally a four band bill, Kate Taylor-Mighty made her Bohemia debut followed by one of the Bohemian favorites, Rollo Tomasi Quartet.  The name Rollo Tomasi, of course, is the invisible assassin from the 1997 film L.A. Confidential and Boston’s RTQ pretty much has a residency monthly at the club under the Cantab and the group’s jazz-inspired rock has become popular in Central Square.  This writer has caught them on many occasion but was only able to catch the third and final act.

It was an evening of pop with heavy cosmic jazz influence as Melissa Weikart brought a dreamy sound into the Club Bohemia cavern that is usually noisy and loud.  With Adam Tuch predominant with his smooth and inviting keyboards over Zach King’s drums and Devon Hurt’s bass, Weikart played to a substantial and appreciative crowd on a beautiful Thursday night in Central Square.

The diva’s voice reached amazing heights over Matt Okun’s liquid guitar strums with bass, drums and keys all generating a symphonic, airy bit of mystery, embracing Weikart’s lyric in a pleasant and entertaining way.  Engaging renditions of her “Our Room,” White Dress,” “New Normal” and “Broken Records” gave way to Weikart sitting down at Tuch’s piano to perform solo.  “Unconventional, but it’s happening” she noted as they were able to get the stand-up microphone at the right height for “Humans.”  The solo material, in particular, seem perfect for a new Twilight Zone, odd piano sounds and a vocal sound that went contrary to the notes she plucked off of the keyboard, quite difficult to pull off.  The audience, all the tables and chairs filled, but still intimate, kept quiet during the solo portion.  Pure artistry at play and a very welcome change of pace for our cellar full of noise in the cavern under Massachusetts Ave.

Chicken Slacks upstairs were downright frighteningly good with a more than average rowdy crowd stomping to pure rhythm and blues.  This writer gets to see the Slacks almost every week, but this night, April 27, was more intense than usual.  The club was getting filled to capacity and the room and floor were shaking…with a line of more people outside.  I snapped one video which captured the craziness, but had to get out of Dodge as it was, “just too many people” (thank you, Melissa Manchester) for me at midnight…had to get home to catch the last part of Perry Mason.  (Joe Viglione)




iPhone video Mary Weikart 4 27 17 IMG 1168 
Video, not Facebook Live