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Friday, January 22, 2010

Show Review: The Moaners, Lonnie Walker, Liza Kate

The Moaners w/Lonnie Walker and Liza Kate
The Pinhook, Durham
January 15, 2010


The Pinhook is a deep room. From the edge of the venue's narrow door that portals you away from the concrete of the downtown loop, to tipping your hat gingerly past an amplifying floor to ceiling mirror alive with the green felt hue of a billiards table and the chatter of its gatherers, beyond the tall scenester lined oaken bar that mysteriously vanishes into an arcade themed hipster living room, to the factory sized collecting room housing the anticipations of over one hundred patrons standing at stage edge, and finally out the back door on the patio to blow smoke at the passing locomotives...is an entire night's journey. A blind man would not even need his stick to navigate it’s path, The Pinhook’s textures are alive with subliminal attractions that push you like the current in a brook...in and around, up and down and sometimes swirling. Friday night the current saw no strugglers as The Moaners, Lonnie Walker, and Liza Kate set up camp on the Pinhook's banks and strung up their guitars.

Liza Kate is a darling singer-song writer who drove down from Richmond to sit on the stage early in the night and crack jokes like a gleeful villain about to set a plan to motion. The gentle textures of a strummed six string drew an unsuspecting crowd of us to the stage where we giggled away at her wise cracks until she was satisfied that we were all off guard and wouldn't anticipate her perfect pitch and haunted voice being slipped into our chests like a satin dagger. Killing us softly with anguished storytelling over a harmony of acoustic guitar and smoldering vocals, my last words were "very nice Liza Kate, very nice."

Liza Kate gathered up the souls that lay at her feet and left the stage open for the whirl-wind dizzy Lonnie Walker. 2009 was a buzzed up year for these guys. They released These Times, Old Times on Chapel Hill Terpsikhore in May and soon earned media darling like attention from local and not so local pubs all of which culminated in the Indy naming These Times, Old Times as one of 2009's top album's of the Triangle. With the local subculture rushing to conclude who Lonnie Walker is, the expectations have often been stacked against them. Their loose around the edges and tight in the middle performance Friday night hinted that they are taller than the stack. Lonnie Walker is starting to believe that they are Lonnie Walker and their live shows are growing taller before our eyes, and theirs.

From unassuming faces in the crowd to radiant mesmerizing sirens in a single step across the threshold of the stage, I've never seen two people change so dramatically from street to spotlight as Melissa Swingle and Laura King do when taking stage as The Moaners. Wearing sun glasses and charisma, Melissa Swingle's matter-of-fact inflection and metered energy charms her starry eyed listeners to a personal level. Playing a down tuned guitar with a slide while feeding a wild animal Fender tube amp, Melissa timelessly glows in the lights of the stage like a memory of her own self being softer, younger, and meaner. If Melissa allows you to take your eyes off of her for a moment you'll fall for Laura King's shoe gaze vulnerability. Quick and mysterious when encountered turning knobs at Nightlight, Laura turns docile and comprehended when walking the kit on stage. For all of the intricacies that seek their stage persona, The Moaners flow with an effortless suave, symbolic of classic rock glory, and substantiated by neofolk importance. --Carrboro Ninja

images

The Moaners
The Moaners w/Lonnie Walker and Liza Kate
The Moaners w/Lonnie Walker and Liza Kate
The Moaners w/Lonnie Walker and Liza Kate
The Moaners w/Lonnie Walker and Liza Kate
The Moaners w/Lonnie Walker and Liza Kate
We "saw" Melissa at The Pinhook last Friday night.


Liza Kate
The Moaners w/Lonnie Walker and Liza Kate
The Moaners w/Lonnie Walker and Liza Kate

Lonnie Walker
The Moaners w/Lonnie Walker and Liza Kate
The Moaners w/Lonnie Walker and Liza Kate

full slideshow (15 images)

Wednesday, January 20, 2010

Shows This Week

Hati Relief Poster
-poster art by Daniel Snyder


1/21 THR (Secret Pirate Bar ) Oyster Destroyster - for those not privi to OD, this is a swaying and chanting period-costume wearing sing-a-long collective of Durham rockers who perform ship-board work songs from the days of sail. 10 PM

1/21 THR (the Reservoir) Where the Buffalo Roamed, Gray Young, Irata - Where the Buffalo Roamed CD release party: A Wolf In the Works 10 PM

1/21 THR (Broad Street Cafe) Birds and Arrows, Shakermaker, Not Dead Yet- Birds and Arrows are fraking awesome. 10 PM

1/21 THR (Slims) Gross Ghost, Veelee - Lest I forget about Raleigh in the Thursday rock line-up. Gross Ghost is a straight up indy outfit fronted by the dynamic and multi-dimensional what's-his-face. Veelee is the new word for cool in Chapel Hill.

1/22 FRI (Broad Street Cafe) Jon Shain Trio, The Grandsons, The Gravy Boys - This will be the Americana/roots destination for Friday night.

1/22 FRI (Black Flower) Pasadena - This will be the face rock pants-off-dance-off destination for Friday night. 9 PM

I dub this Saturday 1/23/2010 Holy Shit Saturday...FOUR benefit shows...let's walk through this;

1/23 SAT (Cat's Cradle) The Moaners, New Town Drunks, Puritan Rodeo, The Bipolar Bears, Kick The Future, HWYL, Kitty Box and the Johnnys - This is our Hope for Haiti Benefit and the first bands play at 6:00 PM.$10 at the door.

1/23 SAT (Pinhook) Beloved Binge, Trouble, River City Ransom, Up the Down Escalator - Ta Ta to the Ta Ta's Benefit Show, benefiting Durham scene fixture Colin Mauger and the doctor bills. $7-$10, at the door, 10 PM

1/23 SAT (Bull McCabe's) Karaoke for Cy - Don't forget that Cy Rawls Has a Posse, and they are wicked Jedi Karaoke killers. $5 per song which funnels through the Cy Rawls team to the Tisch Brain Cancer Center. Be ready to sing at 8 PM.

1/23 SAT (Duke Coffeehouse) Heart of Glass (Blondie Tribute Band), Princess and the Criminals, Scientific Superstar - This is a benefit show for the Girls Rock Camp Alliance which is the ying to the girl scouts yang. 8 PM.



sneak peak at next week:
Max Indian, Light Pines, Ryan Gustafson 1/29 - Duke Coffee House

The Pneurotics 1/28 - Baily's (this is the beginning of a new music series featuring local bands and micro brews from around the state)

Tuesday, January 12, 2010

Shows This Week (being observed from a vantage of stealth and shadow)

Pink Flag poster
-poster art by Dork Flag

1/14 THR (The Cave) Luego - early show, 7:30 PM. Patrick recently announced that Luego is in the studio working on album number two. video of Luego performing on Jake Seaton's Sessions at Studio B



1/14 THR (Pour House) Bobby Lee Rodgers - ex-The Codetalkers front man takes it solo with a geetar. 8 PM.



1/15 FRI (General Store Cafe) The Sinful Savage Tigers - The Tigers hold down The General Store Cafe in Pittsboro with their elegantly vicious blue grass. 8:30 PM



1/15 FRI (The Pinhook) The Moaners, Lonnie Walker - This sow starts at 10 PM (which is Pinhook vernacular for 11 PM) ...you'll want to see Melissa Swingle rock the saw.



1/16 SAT (house show) Pink Flag, River City Ransom - continuing Durham's hip house show circuit, this show will be at 2611 Stuart Dr Durham, NC "The Stately" 8:30 PM



1/16 SAT (The Pinhook) Grappling Hook, Cantwell Gomez and Jordan -CGJ suddenly showing signs. dig that.

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