Sep
02
2009

No Suck Promise Delivered

Stephen Ashbrook @ Davey's Uptown Ramblers Club

Wednesday, September 2, 2009 - 11:58:09 pm
(Posted Under: Music Music, Tempe Music Scene Tempe Music Scene, Live Shows)
Stephen Ashbrook gives a "no suck promise" on his live shows, and he definitely delivered on that last night.

It was a few weeks ago that we noticed that he was playing in Des Moines, looked up tour dates and saw that he was going to be coming to Kansas City. So it was about a 2 hour drive for us up to Kansas City.

On driving up to Davey's Uptown Ramblers Club both the area and bar looked impressively seedy, and since we it was close to an our before the show, we opted for driving around a bit, rather than killing time in the bar. We came across a World War I monument, and looked around there until about 7:20, and then headed back to the car. After trying to find the safest place to park, we walked over to the bar - and then realized there was parking in the rear, so we moved the car which made us both feel better.

On entering the bar, it became apparent that looks were deceiving, because inside wasn't as alarming as it looked driving up. After taking our cover charge, Michelle, the waitress set us up at the bar. Inside was quite dark, with most of the lighting coming from the red neon signs, and with Stephen off to the side talking to people, it was very reminencent of being at the Yucca Tap Room. Small dark, divey but good feeling bar, waiting to hear some Tempe musician (despite the fact that he moved to Portland years ago, for me - and many people I'm sure), Ashbrook will always be a Tempe guy), it completely had that familiar Yucca Tap Room feel.

Stephen took the stage at 8, kicked off with songs from the new CD White Balloons. We'd been discussing the album the other day, and Katie mentioned how she didn't particularly like the sound / production of the new album, but was interested in hearing what they'd be like stripped down and more traditional Ashbrook sounding, figured she'd probably enjoy them more. Right after playing You Are Here and 21 Young, that idea was certainly confirmed. They're not particular favorites of mine of the new album, but they sounded great stripped back to just Stephen with an acoustic guitar. For me, You Are Here was particularly awesome acoustic.

Having listened so much to Ashbrook live recordings, most everytime he spoke ("welcome out", "thank you" etc) it was really like "wow, I'm finally seeing Ashbrook").

Not surprisingly, early on he played Kansas City, and anyone who has been reading my blog out late knows that I've quoted the lyrics ("sitting in a holiday in, outside Kansas City. Sipping on a warm beer, poking out cold chinese") almost every time I've been to Kansas City in the last 3 months (particularly when we stayed in a Holiday Inn [smile] ). So it was really cool when he gave the back story on the song - touring with a band, getting stuck in Kansas City due to tornados; his friend would get the beer, and he'd be the one to get the chinese food. Funnily enough, a while ago I mentioned to Katie that it'd be cool to find out which Holiday Inn it was (because I'm a geek like that), and as part of the story he described it as one with a mini golf course in the middle of it. So we no doubt need to research that. [smile]

As for the set, it was a typical Ashbrook set - long, and including pretty much everything that you wanted to hear. He starting taking / encouraging requests fairly early on. I took a photo of the set list after the first set, and looking it in highensight, the requests from the crowd were definitely what drove the show.

Early on he played Geronimo, which was great to hear, and was the only new song that didn't sound better acoustic. Not that surprising, just because the album version of that song is perfect. Obviously hearing Rock N Roll was great and I took video of it.

Towards the end when he played Fastest Car one woman in the crowd encouraged many of the other females to get up and dance by the stage (the stage only really being defined by two monitors on the floor in front of Stephen) including Katie which was kinda cool. Towards the end he also pulled out a "obsquire cover" - Just Like Heaven by The Cure. Very cool to get to see that. I wish I'd taken video of it.

After the show we went up to grab some CD - I've been waiting for ever to get Double Live @ Long Wongs and we'd discussed that we really should get White Balloons. There was also a t-shirt, so I was hoping to replace my "I don't need to be discovered because I was never lost" t-shirt that was stolen in Arizona. So we waited up the front while he chatted and talked to some people. Then he came over and said hi, and introduced himself, and we said how Katie had seen him before and that I'd been a fan for quite a while but this was my first show. He mentioned that one of his rock climbing buddies had just returned to Melbourne, and was interested in the fact that we were moving out to Arizona. Without much explanation he was all over the fact that it was the music scene taking us out there. And that right there is one of the reasons why Stephen Ashbrook is really cool. He hasn't lived there for years, but still knows the importance of it. He talked a bit about the old days and how easy it was to play 5 times a week, how the smoking ban (introduced years ago) really hurt the scene, and of course the "Long Wongs Smell". [smile] Before saying bye, we mentioned that we were after some CD's. On asking for Double Live and White Balloons, he informed us of his "2 for $20 deal". Sweet...as Double Live was $15 and White Balloons was $12. Unfortunately he didn't have any of the right sized t-shirts with him, so we passed on that for now.

But that right there is why you should support artists like Stephen Ashbrook. Aside from his music being great - it was $5 dollars each as the cover, for 2 and a half hours of entertainment, and then sells 2 of his CD's for $20. How can you beat that? That's right, you can't.

So all in all it was a really enjoyably night. It was also really cool to get to see him out here, because without a doubt we'll see him in Arizona (which he always returns to for shows), but those shows are really packed, so it was really cool to have gotten to see him in a small bar, in an acoustic setting (Arizona shows are normally fully band) with only a handful (not that it wasn't a good turn out) of people.

The aforementioned video of Rock-n-Roll...


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