Curtis Peoples

With the semester ending, my friend and I decided that we needed to go to as many concerts as possible before we scattered across the US. I asked a friend (Bobby, for those of you who know him) for a list of concerts in the L.A. area and Curtis's happened to be the first on that list that Meghan and I were both able to go to ... and I am so glad that we did. I have not been this excited about new music since I first started listening to Speechwriters LLC over a year ago.

On Saturday we saw him at the Gypsy Den which is a restaurant-type place in Santa Ana. I keep thinking of it as like someone's living room, but cooler. There were pictures on the walls, pretty curtains by the windows, couches off in the corner ... that sort of thing. There were other people playing there including Dave Yaden on piano (who played quite a few songs with Curtis) and Terra Naomi on piano and guitar. For most of his songs, Curtis played guitar with Dave on piano and another guy, Jason, on guitar. Overall I just had a great time and the atmosphere in the place was wonderful. There was banter between the guys on stage and interaction with the rest of the people in the room. Since I was not very familiar with the music, I just sat back and listened. When I listen to Curtis's voice, it seems sort of rough but still very enjoyable. I got his CD Whisper to a Scream after the show and I have been listening to it constantly since then. I am trying to think of what would be my favorite song, but I am having trouble coming up with just one (and there are only 7 songs!).

While we were there, Bobby mentioned that there was going to be another show on Tuesday at the Knitting Factory, but with the full band. We had not planned on going to that show because of other obligations, but with Bobby going on about great it was and knowing how much fun we had at the first show, we decided to push some things out of the way and go. I am so glad that we did because I was blown away by it. There was so much energy up on stage and there were times when Curtis seemed like very much the rock star (in a good way). The other guys in the band each had a moment where they could show off what they could do. They started off with When Doves Cry before going into their own songs and finished with With A Little Help From My Friends which was an awesome way to end the show (again, very energetic). The next band, however, was like "You can play another" so they did Mary Jane's Last Dance as an encore (apparently the first time they have done an encore).

Now I am left wishing, as usual, that I had started listening to this person much sooner. My hope is that he will play near where I am going to graduate school (I already asked him to ;)

Download Hope It Seems here.

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