Flashbacks a Go-Go

The first live music I saw this summer was Nneka (pronounced Nek-eh), a Nigerian-born woman who played a noon show at Waterloo. I would call her music Afri-folk, eventhough the press called it hip-hop. Obviously hard to classify, as world music so often is, her songs were hearltfelt and earnest, political and personal. The band played understatedly beneath her vocals, with the keyboard setting the tone with pop-like major chords, but kind of wandering behind Nneka's singing. Hard for me to describe, since I lack a musician's vocabulary, but really good.

With it being a noon show, there was no free beer. But there was free lunch! Austin's Pizza delivered a stack of their best pies. You can see my second helping, resting on the CD case. For best results, rotate your screen 90 degrees.

Kathy Valentine played bass with The Go-Go's back in the day. Now she lives in Austin, and is one of two guitarists with The Bluebonnets, a "girl group" that can rock with the boys. Guitar-driven-no-ballad-garage-rock is what they do best. The songs and the vocals were good but not great, but they all could really play. When the two guitarists took over on their last song, "I'm Losing my Man," it gave a glimpse of how much fun seeing them in a club might be. The bass player is the only one of the four that plays up a sexy image, but they must know that what they do is substance over style, not in need of a gimmick.

While the blog is about fun, real life does intrude on a regular basis. Summer becomes the default

time for all procrastinated projects. Since this one is both major and photogenic, I decided to include it on JaySummer4. I hope to post some "after" pictures soon. I've been pretty homebound while Winston the Repairman does his thing, but if all goes well, this evening will include a Terri Hendrix in-store, and at least one movie at the Paramount Theater downtown.

One last thing about Waterloo Records, and its owner, John Kunz: After thanking everyone for coming out to see The Bluebonnets, he reminded us that End of an Ear was having its 5th anniversary celebration that day, and encouraged us to go help them celebrate. End of an Ear is another independent record store, just a couple of miles from Waterloo. They are his COMPETITION, and he's giving them a shout out, saying, "We're all in this together."
That's class.

Peace,

JS4