Small Digs

After a quiet long week-end, I thought to continue the mood with some intimate music. The Garrison wouldn't be my first choice for that but 2 artists likely to provide that experience were playing there Monday night. I was right, it wasn't the right venue especially with such a small crowd; the Dakota down the street would have been better. At my first encounter with local singer Stacey, she reminded me of Lana Del Rey. With her moody songs, even ones about happy love affairs, her set was soft and low-key. Perhaps a little too much so. Despite her classical training, her arrangements were primarily solid chords with single bass notes, which made for monotonous pop songs. Even a mash-up of Build Me Up Buttercup/Satisfaction was mournful.

Singer Holly Fullbrook (of New Zealand trio Tiny Ruins) also write predominantly quiet songs but there were several points of interests. First, her own classical training informed her guitar work full of shimmering lines, vibrato, and non-dominant chords. Second, her songs with their imagery covered topics from her childhood in Bristol, UK (The Ballad of the Hanging Parcel) to old Glasgow (Jamie Blue) and making do (Straw Into Gold). It was a charming set which did not benefit from the cavernous room. It was to their credit that they made it feel warm and cozy. Tiny Ruins ended their set with the genuinely rocking She'll Be Coming Round. Since there was "no curfew", and a few insistent fans, Fullbrook came back for an encore with a mythic Priest With Balloons.