Kelly Ravin & Friends, Swale And Vedora At The Monkey House February 22, 2014

Words by Tim Lewis.

I had a great time seeing music last Saturday at The Monkey House. I met up with Christopher Larrow and we arrived at the show with Kelly Ravin and band onstage. He was singing and playing electric and was accompanied by a stand-up bass player and a twangless pedal steel player. I listened to the country song they were playing as I settled in, but the next song had a nice pop sound and some great lyrics, and it just blew me away. They followed with another country song and closed with a rocker that had a slight Floyd vibe. The band were smooth and elegant, and I need to find out what those two songs were! Nathan Curtis showed up after that and soon Swale took the stage. They started slow and song by song got more rocking. They were going at a good clip, but just dd not take it over the top. They slowed things down for another song or two, then built the rock again. They climbed a little higher, but still not to the heights they can hit. They brought things down almost too much with Old School, then used If You Get Lost to ramp things up. By the end of the set they were in full glorious all out rock mode and I was blissfully happy. Vedora followed with a solid set of mostly new songs. They tossed in a couple of classics but the new songs took center stage. I’m still getting to know them, and like them a lot. I really liked the set, but it was not quite as dynamic as some of the shows in the past. The new material seems a bit more tightly constructed, and I’m sure I will get used to it soon. They closed with a Matthew Hastings guitar workout on Sober, and that was that. A band called Great Western Plains, from Maine were set to follow, but I was just drained. I took the easy ride home from Nate and called it a night. I’m bummed I missed the last band, and should have showed up earlier, but I loved what I caught.

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