Artist: Justin Currie (of Del Amitri)
Opening Act: Graham Colton
Location: The Tin Angel – Philadelphia, Pa
Date: Saturday, June 19th, 2010
[Venue]
The Tin Angel
20 South 2nd Street
Philadelphia, PA
The Tin Angel is a great place to see a musician. It’s small and intimate, so if you happen see a show with “popular act”, you are in for a real treat. There is a restaurant downstairs that is great, so it’s a good night out if you can snag a table.
[Opening Act: Graham Colton]
As we walked into the Tin Angel, my wife and I (unknowingly) had a brief, pleasant exchange with Graham Colton. He was quite polite and friendly (and I am sure the ladies will find him good looking). Colton’s music is easy on the ears; a respectable singer with a good sense of rhythm on the guitar. His singer-songwriter style leans towards poppy love songs; since he seems like such a genuinely nice guy, the music doesn’t come off as douchy.
Colton’s last song of his 30 minute set (which was about the death of a friend – I didn’t catch the name) was his most emotionally mature. I want to recommend Graham Colton to you, but I suspect if you have a penis the music won’t do much for you. With that said, Graham is the kind of guy that a college girl would love to take home and get the bed sheets dirty and not feel all shamed up about it the next day (just don’t mention his wife Helen).
Website: Graham Colton
[Main Event: Justin Currie]
Let me just get this out of the way: Justin Currie sounded incredible. Years of the rock star lifestyle has done nothing to damage or degrade his voice, if anything, it has improved with age. Currie was accompanied by a keyboard/accordion player named Pete and it looks like the two have been playing together for a while. The set list consisted of a nice blend of Del Amitri classics and his newer solo material. Currie took a significant amount of requests from the crowd including one from me “Don’t I look like the kind of guy you used to hate.” He forgot half the song since it was an obscure b-side, but seemed impressed someone in the US knew about it.
Currie changed up some classic Del Amitri tunes like “Not Where it’s at” since the band wasn’t backing him – the changes seemed natural and sounded excellent. Justin’s newer tunes seemed to utilize a milder version the “Neil Finn Solo Album” technique – having weird little electronic noises under the acoustic guitar – it worked well to fill out the sound without a full band. Since Currie took so many requests, the tempo of the show dragged a bit in the middle (most people requested slower songs), but like a pro he knew when to pick it back up. The show ended around 10:00 PM as Justin was asked to wrap it up for another act starting at 10:30 (nobody I ever heard of).
Justin Currie is one of the premire, yet overlooked (in the US) songwriters of the last 20 years and it was a real pleasure to be able to see him perform in an intimate venue. Tonight is his last tour date and it is in Washington, DC. If you are in the area, I highly recommend catching the show.
You can purchase Justin Currie’s “The Great War” at Amazon
