Givers at The Earl, Atlanta, November 24, 2015

George Bernard Shaw once said, “One way to be popular is to listen attentively to a lot of things you already know.” Listening well is an act of generosity. 

It seems like just last Friday were at The Earl, in fact, it was just last Friday we were at The Earl for Here We Go Magic and Little Tybee, but last night we were back for Givers. 

We saw Givers about this time last year at Vinyl, and while we're glad to see them again, one of the reasons for going out last night was to finally catch Doe Paoro, an artist we've been wanting to see for a while now.

We weren't sure quite what to expect from New York's Paoro, considering this was the first thing we'd heard from her:

After that introduction, we got to know her as a soulful torch singer influenced as much by Tibetan music and Vipassana meditation as by D'Angelo and James Blake, as evidenced by songs like Born Whole:

Since that time, that long-lost era known to some as "2012," Paoro's continued her evolution and last night she performed basically as a pop singer, although, to be sure, a thoughtful and compelling pop singer and a delight to listen to.

The Earl audience was their typically noisy self during Paoro's set and unfortunately drowned out some of her quieter moments, but at other times she managed to overwhelm the room with the force of her voice and her able band, consisting of just a drummer and keyboards although if you closed your eyes, you'd swear there was a larger band on the stage.

After a somewhat long interval (it happens), Lafayette, Louisiana's Givers took the stage before an excited, pumped-up audience.  I didn't see an announcement about a sell out, but it looked as if The Earl was at or near capacity.

Anyway, Givers performed a typically rowdy, high-energy set of party music, playing mostly songs from their recent album New Kingdom. 

Givers music is rooted in an indie-rock interpretation of cajun, zydeco, funk, and rock 'n' roll, with jazz influences and a dash of R&B - basically, anything that keeps the party going and keeps folks dancing. They're obviously well versed in their Louisiana roots music as evidenced by their impressive interpretation of Paul Simon's That Was Your Mother. 

Not that they were even remotely acoustic last night (although it's reassuring to know that they could play that way if necessary).  No, last night they were flat out synth-pop and funk-rock, with lots of handclapping and back-and-forth vocals by frontpersons Tiffany Lamson and Taylor Guarisco.

As stated, they mostly played songs off of their new album and to my disappointment didn't perform In My Eyes (commonly known as In Light), but they did manage to sneak in Up Up Up and an encore cover of Prince's 1999, which turned out to be a perfect vehicle for their back-and-forth vocals.

And then there's this:

Anyway, it was a fun, great time and it's good to know that Givers right now are at the top of their game.

POST-SCRIPT:  This is getting pretty far off topic, but the African Men video reminded me of this one.