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| Allison Weiss & Chris Kuffner @ Rockwood Music Hall 12-3-10 |
Brooklyn via Athens, Georgia musician Allison Weiss performed at the intimate, local lower east side hot spot for singer-songwriters and bands, Rockwood Music Hall, on a chilly Friday evening. Roughly 50 people squeezed into the tiny room. It warmed me up and fogged the windows up, as Weiss noticed. I was tempted to spell out "Allison Weiss" with my finger on the window, but could hardly move around, ha. I was excited to see her perform for this first time. Tonight was special because she left her standard acoustic guitar home and opted for a pretty sweet looking red mahogany electric guitar. The serendipitous nature of the Internet led me to discover Weiss through a tweet a friend made on Twitter. With an active online presence it's hard not to pay attention to her posts. She's really building a personality for herself online. I really appreciate those artists that share so much of themselves, it lets you understand the music better. Her DIY ethic is pretty cool. She self releases her albums, packs her own merch, books her own shows, and maintains all her websites. Maybe we can be buddies?
Okay so how was the band? Fucking solid. The electric, full band set sounded great! She was accompanied by Lauren Zettler on keys, Chris Kuffner on bass, and Adam Christgau on drums. It was just what I needed on a Friday. It was a pleasant, consistent sounding set. Dare I say Allison and company rocked rockwood. Her songs sound like a pretty Bright Eyes meets indie-rock meets pop-punk. She was so excited and seemed pretty confident on stage. She sang personal songs with universal love themes like missing an ex and having a crush, and in the moment experiences like losing a GPS in NYC and getting lost but finding a beautiful bridge in Boston while on tour in 2007. She closed with "Fingers Crossed," (which you can see a music video for below this post), which has some sweet drumming! It seemed like a song about letting someone wholeheartedly into your life, giving them your fucking all, but perhaps not having it reciprocated yet still hoping for the best?
Something to note about the setting and a pause that occurred during the set: Bars with live music can be a bit of an odd place- you don't know who's their for the music and who's their for the party (socializing and boozing) in this case. Rockwood is small, so you can easily hear conversation from across the room. Some folks in the back were laughing and conversing, which interrupted the quiet song Allison was playing. For those paying attention to the show it was annoying and well, rude. Looking boldly straight in the back at the crew, Weiss sings quietly, before realizing they still weren't going to stop, so she stopped. Jokingly, yet politely she asked them to take their party elsewhere. Rightfully so. Girl was playing a show to a packed room for people trying to enjoy the set and there's a group of people uninterested and chatting away, making noise? C'mon. Show a little respect. They pipped down soon enough and finally exited to the satisfactions of both Allison and the crowd who cheered. I know a bar is a bar but this is a live music space and if you're not their for the music, then leave. It's that simple. Kudos to Allison for speaking up about it.
Some extra notes:
1) Allison plays again at Rockwood Music Hall on Dec. 23 with Bess Rogers. Same times, same price: 10pm, free. http://www.rockwoodmusichall.com/
2) Allison just put up a new merch store where you can purchase goodies like a cleverly drawn lizard t-shirt and bike t-shirt, plus her CD's and some other coolness: http://allisonweiss.storenvy.com/
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