I already raved here about Kelley Stoltz and his great (but too short) performance at SXSW, and his excellent new CD, Circular Sounds, so I won’t go on and on again… but he put on another really good show last night (April 21) at the Empty Bottle. For my money, Stoltz is one of the best songwriters right now, and his live set was loose, good-natured and more rocking than you might expect. Stoltz’s records show a various ’60s and early ’70s influences, but last night the influence I picked up the most was the Kinks, which is not a bad influence at all…
The set got a little shaggy at the end, with covers of the theme to “Midnight Cowboy,” a Link Wray song and the Beatles’ “And Your Bird Can Sing.” It was all in good fun. I enjoyed the opening sets by the Syllable Section and Sharks and Seals, though I’ll have to hear more of their music before forming an opinion about it. And it was so dark at the Bottle last night, I’m not going to bother posting my grainy shots of the opening bands.