Brian Vander Ark!
So, Saturday night Logan and I went to go see Brian Vander Ark at The Ark. We’d been looking forward to this show for awhile - his new, self-titled CD came out not too long ago, and we’d been listening to it quite a lot already. His wife, Lux Land opened the show. Her music is nicely relaxing, though it tends to be a little too country for my tastes, with the heavy use of the slide guitar in her songs. We actually got her CD for free the last time we saw Brian at the Ark.
Anyway, Brian’s show was thoroughly awesome. It was the first time I’ve seen him with a full band and it rocked. (Randy Sly was on piano, Dan Matheny on the electric guitar, Joel Ferguson on bass, and I sadly missed the name of the drummer.) He played mostly songs from his new album, but thankfully he played the song that introduced me to him, “Survival.” That song just makes me grin and sing along, and he didn’t sing it at his last show at the Ark. When he and the band played “Fit to be Tied” I was dancing in my seat and wanting to sing along - it had such great energy. He also played “Detroit Rock City” which I’d coincidentally never heard (or at least enough to recognize) until the night before when I had to sing it while playing “Rock Band.” And of course, the acoustic version of “The Freshman,” which brought his band The Verve Pipe to fame in 1997. He played two songs that I didn’t recognize - I assume that one, when he commented about it being “historical” is another Verve Pipe song, but I’m not sure what the other was (the second in the encore if anyone out there knows).
They didn’t allow flashes this time, but I think I figured out how to get decent exposures, and I’m pleased with my first real attempt at concert photography. You can see the rest of my pictures from the show in this flickr set.