Show Review: Reign Lee at Black Flower

Black Flower, Raleigh
October 27, 2009

This was a touch into the atypical for my norms, sitting long side in a plush Hollywood style half circle booth, feet up and sipping a Maker's to a quaint acoustic pair of exotic tigress' on a cold rainy Tuesday night in Glenwood South's newest rock haunt, Black Flower . Gracing the microphone were Ontario born and Hong Kong native singer-songwriter Reign Lee and her wise-cracking brit side kick Sue Sherman who were elegantly shredding down the parts of Reign's bountifully arranged electric album Broken Skylines into ballad-esque parts proportioned for a meandering fall US tour as a duo.

suspension of reality

Then and Now, The Return of The Honored Guests
Show Review: Future Islands
The Pneurotics CD Release Party Images
Show Review: New Town Drunks, John Howie, Jr. and the Sweethearts, Taz Halloween

Reign having played twenty-four hours prior in Chapel Hill at The Cave with a couple of locals caught my attention and I marked to return the following day in Raleigh to watch and listen, this time with a hood pulled over my brow blinding the distractions...quite in opposite of the night before where the welcome ruckus of loud friends and whose turn it is to buy a round pulled attentions away from the more important darkening delivery of a bright presence adorning the stage. Given the chance to listen was to be given reward as the most interesting and enjoyable aspects of Reign's show are those subtler ones that are only discovered when the listener is in the same mind space as the performer. Soothing baritone demeanor tells you a story with calm anticipation of its cracking and shooting squalls of vocal range as Reign drives a point through the mic like a stiletto. Nuanced to the untrained eye is the lanky, clever, and delicate Sue Sherman's fret board aerobatics so complexly arranged and executed upon a subtle acoustic guitar that my mind processed its potential and transformed its input from acoustic warmth into vintage tube grind as if I had just upgraded the circuits in my head with the latest Line 6 guitar amp modeling software. Sue was working the scales like a possessed seamstress and my mind was wrapped in the threads.

Their set ended with modest applause from those few whose eyes followed the show and the chattery excitement of the walk in crowd who were lured from the street by Black Flower's intriguing rock venue meets night club atmosphere. Shortly there after Reign, Sue and I sat down over scotch and hand rolled cigarettes with Black Flower co-owner/manager Jamie Saad and chatted the night away. Having been my first visit to Black Flower my initial comment to Jamie was, "Impressed." As my glass sat on an ornately decorated booth table top next to bold black-flowered wall designs both designed and administered by the prolific Raleigh art-trepreneur Adam Peele, I noted that while this is indeed a fully chartered local rock venue, the high def plasmas on the wall and red velvet ropes out front made claim to it being a special one also. Everyone reading this blog, present company included, has a fondness for the authenticity and edginess of our favorite dingy unkempt and rocked out bars but the same crowd may also agree that the "something special" that is happening with the music scene around this town will continue to drive more talent to the stages and the followings must grow along with them. This means friends and folks who don't currently spend their entertainment pesos on local music need to be enchanted to do so and these favorite friends of ours may not feel so comfortable as you or I in stepping through the gates of the parallel universe that is The Cave. Black Flower being inspired by the creativity and ingenuity of the local music culture and with a focus on promoting the local music culture with every fiber of their being...while at the same time being posh and inviting the opposite sub-cultures, has the potential to introduce our music to new audiences.

Jamie's effort is to expand upon the expectations of a music venue. Black Flower now in operation for a year, has aspirations around the stage that are true as an arrow in favor of pushing, pulling, and promoting small local talent to reach their next level what ever it may be. An Internet Cafe model with click-and-mortar musician e-tailing is being planned and will cater to a local musician culture which is dizzy from trying to reach their local audience with the amazon/itunes planets should it be developed and launched. Pure focus on original local bands in sacrifice of the cash machine cover band racket that engulfs Glenwood South proves that their heart is in the right place and gives a new property to the indie music sub-culture in this crowd swelled part of the Raleigh monopoly board. Keep an eye on the Black Flower music calendar and support them as much as possible, from what I gathered Tuesday night they're here to support us. --Carrboro Ninja


Reign Lee



Sue Sherman



Black Flower bar

the signature pen work of local designer-clothing label artist Adam Peele such as this ornately designed booth table top can be found throughout Black Flower's decor, both on-line and in-side. Visit Adam's webstore to view his Ahpeele designer clothing line; http://www.ahpeele.bigcartel.com

Then and Now, The Return of The Honored Guests

suspension of reality

Show Review: Future Islands
The Pneurotics CD Release Party Images
Show Review: New Town Drunks, John Howie, Jr. and the Sweethearts, Taz Halloween
The Pneurotics: Second Skin

My introduction to Chapel Hill alt rock virtuosos The Honored Guests was made in April 2007 just a few days before the closed doors of Kings Barcade made way for a monolith parking garage across the street from the Raleigh Convention Center. With a small crowd of friends gathered outside an early to finish The Decemberists show at Meymandi concert hall up the street, we discussed the merits of keeping the night alive and a lone suggestion from somewhere amid the chuckles and smiles of the group made perfect sense, "I think Kings is still open, we could go see who is playing." With the realization that it was likely our last chance to lurk in shadows of Kings, away we marched and the night was to live on a few more hours.

Kings was much like we knew it, upon walking in we were greeted with an expansive bar and the sound of loud pounding rock coming from the stage room that is held around the corner and just out of sight while ordering up a beer. Each of us served, we strolled into the music and sipped away while enjoying a mélange of saying good bye to Kings and saying hello to The Honored Guests who were on stage and brining it.

Their crowd of seventy-five or so was strong for a Tuesday night in the concrete surroundings of down town Raleigh and they were in to the music, heads bobbing and lips singing. Along with the solid energy coming from the stage it was easy to also get in to it and so we did. The night ended with us buying a few of their CDs at the merch stand and having a few conversations about their music and how sad we all were to see the outtro of Kings. A few months passed before I saw them play again, this time at The Cat's Cradle in Carrboro opening for The Rosebuds and this time playing for over a thousand. I left that show just as pumped about their music but what I didn't realize was that this would be one of their last shows before an expansive hiatus.

a year went by and oblivion loomed. I saw lead singer Russell Baggett out in chapel hill later that year and we chatted briefly and from it I gathered that they were figuring things out and the future of the band was pretty much unknown. I also left with the hint that they were in the studio recording something. What they were in the studio for turned out to be a little gem called "Talk Talk Talk" which would ultimately talk them back to the stage.

I checked in once and a while for signs of new stuff. Their myspace, facespace, blogspace, it was all pretty quiet until later that summer sure enough, a new track went up called "Talk Talk Talk". It was smooth and hooky and had the kind of airy vocals and prominent guitar work that Chris Martin and Jonny Buckland could eat their hearts out over. I played it over and over and came to realize it was their best work. I wasn't the only one to take notice either, Pox World Empire grabbed it for their opening position on Compilation Volume 3, Songs from North Carolina, a masterful collection of new music from the local scene which was released earlier this year and is available around town on indie record store shelves right now. From this the buzz on their myspace comments section picked up and fans called out. The Daily Tarheel blogged about the compilation and focused on their track. It seemed oblivion would have to wait…The Honored Guests were invited back.

Consistency is a luxury that the local music goers have learned to live without. So much changes in our favorite bands, venues, and routines that it's easier to live in the moment than it is to look to the future. With a sigh we let broken up bands slip out of our sights and move on to the next obsession. It's an unintended treat then, when something we had nearly given up for lost comes back. Last Thursday night at The Pinhook we got something back. Along side Aminal and the touring Low Red Land, The Honored Guests once again took the stage and delighted a crowd that was completely in to it with bobbing heads and signing lips. "Talk Talk Talk" sounded even better live than on the CD player and was a perfect ode for a welcome back celebration. With the momentum of a great new song, the support of their old fans, and another show already on the calendar for November, I'm looking forward to keeping it. --Carrboro Ninja

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More images from last Thursday








Aminal