Last night I checked out my second show for this year’s Mission Creek Music Festival with Kelley Stoltz (myspace) and Sonny Smith (myspace) at the Makeout Room.

Sonny Smith was the first band up after I got there. Now, before I get into this, I’m not usually one for criticism (though some are encouraging it more). Sonny does folk-rock in the mid-to-late 60s Bob Dylan, even imitating the way Dylan doesn’t really hit his notes while singing, just sliding fluidly between them. He played long repetative, rollicking, rolling songs that when done best (think “Like a Rolling Stone”, the greatest song ever) are almost hypnotic and enable the listener to feel and understand the lyrics and song to a greater degree. For me, at least, I didn’t feel this way with Sonny’s music. (Some people did, obviously, from the crowd reaction. Kelley Stoltz himself was singing along to every song and even making arm gestures to some of the songs.) For me, it just felt like another seven minute two chord song.

[Note: being a critic or music listener that other people, however small that number, pay attention to is odd and experiences like this make one doubt: am I a bad music fan if people are enjoying this but I am not? In the end, all I can do is say what my enjoy and what I don’t.]

Kelley Stoltz and the bubble machine—that’d be a good name for his band, don’t you think?

Kelley Stoltz started out a bit rough, stopping his second song in the middle due to some feedback problem. It’s hard, in my eyes, for a musician to recover from something like that. He did have bubble machines, though, which were pretty sweet.

I did want to say more about his set though: Kelley is a talented recordist (as evidenced by his enjoyable album Below the Branches (insound)) , with good instrumentation, melodies and his sloppy med-fi sensibility, but I’m not sure if his live show translates well; the very strong sense of melody on the recordings isn’t as present live. That’s not to say that he didn’t put on an enjoyable set that showcased different things than his recordings (his soloing ability, which is exists and is good).

Kelley Stoltz - The Sum Comes Through (mp3, from the artist’s site)

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This entry was posted on Monday, May 14th, 2007 at 12:13 pm Posted by adrian in SF bay area, live review, mp3s, photos. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.