Vedora Live At Radio Bean Friday January 27, 2012

Words by Tim Lewis.

It was a slushy rainy evening, and I was finally able to see Caroline O’Connor and Matt Hastings trade the acoustic guitars for a little rock and roll. Work ended at 6 which was plenty of time to go home and hang out for a bit. I was ready to head out at 8:30, at the same time Mike was heading downtown, so off we walked, me towards Radio Bean, and Mike towards the Other Place.

It was crowded when I walked in, but not packed. It looked like the previous band was in the final stage of loading out and Vedora were setting up. Caroline grabbed the bass, Matt the guitar, and Jeff LaBossiere sat behind the kit. Soon enough they started in, The first song was a bit shaky, they played it through pretty well, but weren’t quite together. Up next was a Matt song. It was a pretty upbeat finger picking rocker. They weren’t quite there, but were improving. I spent most of the next song getting another drink, but it sounded pretty good. It was a Caroline song, so it had that nice cool mood. Her voice was strong like always. The band were starting to sound good. All night the drumming had been pretty fervent, now that they were locking in, it was getting fun.

Up next was another bouncy, driving, rocking Matt song. It was pretty fun, but paled compared to what was to come. Caroline introduced a song called Dragnet. It started slow, but had a nice build to it. Not a real obvious build, but when you rock back and forth with the music and start to feel where it’s going to go, it just felt like it was going to explode. It did. I thought they might go for a full out towering over the world rock chorus, but they took the intensity of it into a more Crimson vein. It was fantastic and they sounded wonderful playing it.

They took a bit of a Spanish theme for a song and followed up with another fast Matt rocker. It was a jumping good time. Tonight was the first time I’ve seen Matt play electric, and all night long he had some pretty sweet leads. Caroline then set down the bass, picked up the guitar, and the band played a very cool version of Once Upon. I have always love hearing her play that on acoustic, and having a band wrap itself around it was a treat. Caroline’s voice was sultry. Matt’s guitar was searing and sultry, the song just oozed with beauty. I was sure they would do that one and could not be happier with the way it was played out.

They closed with another song I don’t know called Terrarium. It was a pretty cool song with lots nice rocking guitar. I need to get to know this song better. That was the last song on the setlist and they got ready to pack up, but the audience wanted more. They pulled out another classic that they always do called Mary and Johnny. It’s an old Osange Orange song. Again, I was used to Matt and Caroline playing it on acoustics, but tonight played on electrics, with Jeff happily driving it on, it was clear how much fun this band can be. I’m so glad I went!

This post was originally published by Tim Lewis at his personal blog, https://timstriangletribune.wordpress.com.