Update: Somehow, I managed to lost the entire original post about Tuesday night's show at The Drunken Unicorn (old people and technology), so this is a complete re-post.
As I recall, the show opened with Atlanta's No Eyes (Georgie Seanny), who was joined on wordless vocals for one song by William Fussell of Mood Rings. Most of the people in the audience other than me were with the other bands playing later, and Erica M Anderson (EMA) herself was crouching down near the front, recording most of No Eyes set on her iPhone, and seemed to be enjoying it quite a bit.
Providence, Rhode Island's The Downtown Boys were up next, playing high energy, sax-driven, garage punk. Everyone had a lot of fun both on and off the stage, with EMA and her band dancing throughout the set.
I've been wanting to see EMA live for years now, ever since I first heard The Grey Ship. I'm pleased to report that her show Tuesday night was even better than I had hoped.
She played several songs off her new record, The Future's Void, opening with Satellites, and included California near the middle of her set, and even threw in a Bikini Kills cover.
For someone with such a nihilistic body of work, she came across much more personable and likable than you might expect, shyly acknowledging the audience's compliments and keeping her stage banter pretty direct and honest. I was disappointed that the audience was so small, and our attempt at an encore call fizzled out, but even as we started reluctantly filing out of the club, Erika came out on stage and asked if we wanted to hear one more. Her generosity and humility kept the potentially awkward moment from being any more uncomfortable than it needed to be.
That's about as much as I can remember. It was a fun, fun night and all of the bands played highly disparate but terrific music. A good night all around.
