Brian Lynam At Light Club Lamp Shop February 3, 2015

Words by Tim Lewis.

I had a good time seeing music last Tuesday at Light Club Lamp Shop. It was the first time I had seen music there but was not the first time I ‘d heard Brian Lynamplay. Being a Tuesday it was an easy show to get to, so after work I strolled through the deep frozen weather and wandered into the lamp shop. I was amazed that the place was packed, but was not surprised that most of the people were there to hang out, and the music was in the background.

As you walk in there is a long curved bar on the right, curved wooden booths all over the room, and lamps everywhere. I wandered though the fray, found a drink, then moved to the back of the room, where Brian was set up and playing. A group of people to the left, right in front of the keyboard, were having a nice conversation, but a couple of people to my right were there for the show and paid close attention. The first thing that struck me was that he was not amplified at all. The keyboard had speakers built in, but there was no PA and when he sang, it was just his voice. Despite the din, he seemed happy to play, and when he sang, he sang with gusto. He played some of his rock opera, “God’s Lonely Man”, but I arrived a few minutes late (ran as fast as I could after work, but couldn’t quite make his 8pm start), so I think I missed most of it. He played some cool short instrumentals in different keys. He played a couple of Elton John songs (if you want to swap Circle Of Life for Where To Now St. Peter, that would be fine with me). He played a song from Godspell. He also pulled out some “old timey numbers”, songs from the ’20’s and such, that sounded pretty cool. He did a nice version of Don’t Fence Me In, and stuff like that. 

Despite it not being the ideal place to see and hear music, I hung out until he wrapped it up at 10, listening as closely as I could. There’s a lot to be said about his deep resonant voice and nice keyboard work. I wasn’t blown away like a full rock band does to me, but ended up having a really nice time. I’m so glad I went.

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