By: Andrea Myers
Rift Magazine editor Rich Horton chose a matinee timeslot to present the third in a series of songwriting contests, and the daytime show proved to be a nice way to take in a set of on-the-fly performances. While audience members ordered breakfast items and sipped bloody marys, a rotating cast of local musicians displayed their ability to write songs in a controlled setting; each participant learned the assigned song topic (which, for this contest, was public transportation) a mere 36 hours before taking to the stage, and for the most part the results were surprisingly good.
The afternoon began with a short set from acoustic duo Lea Birbalas and Crystal Brinkman, two members of local folk group Grace Darling. Birbalas sang in a deep, swooping voice and played guitar while Brinkman strummed a banjo, and it reminded me of what it might sound like if Dolores O'Riordan of the Cranberries sat in on an acoustic set with local roots musician Charlie Parr.
Before long it was time to get the contest underway. In front of each audience member was a ballot with each of the participant's names and an informal ranking system for keeping track of favorites as the show progressed. The audience for the show was a little on the sparse side, and it made the already intimate theater of the Bryant Lake Bowl even more intimidating for the performers as people fell silent for each song and hung on every word. The performers alternated between using the house piano and bringing up acoustic guitars, and the change from one singer to the next went fairly quickly.
There were several highlights in the first half of the show. Accelerated Love Affair, an acoustic guitar group, wowed audiences with an ethereal, haunting song about a double-decker bus. "Everyday I drive this bus alone," the two girls sang in perfect harmony, and even though it took them a moment to get in sync with each other ("Sorry, it's 36 hours!" one of the girls exclaimed) they executed their song beautifully. David Brusie, my favorite performer of the day, sat down at the piano to hammer out a sarcastic tune from the perspective of a bus driver obsessed with one of his riders, and with piano work reminiscent of Ben Folds he sang tongue-in-cheek lines like, "I may be drunk and I may be driving / But where do you get off?"
Andra Suchy (back up singer for the Honeydogs) and guitar player Andrew Pierzina wowed audiences with a well-written, radio-ready song about taking the train to Chicago, and Suchy's vocal range and abilities surpassed all of the other performers. It was great to see the songwriters take on different forms of public transportation, as the whole bus theme started to get old fast. Other performers in the first set included Leslie Schumacher, Future Lisa, Robert Meany and Brad Senne.
After a short break, the lovely Eliza Blue played a song about the subways of New York, which was followed up by a very NYC-flavored piano number by Sam Keenan. If you can imagine it, Keenan's song was a mixture of the obscure, rhythmic piano work of Thelonius Monk and the smoothed over vocal stylings of Harry Connick, Jr., and it featured a catchy melody and a great chorus: "Talking heads in my set are predicting rain / That is fine, I don't mind if I take the train." Birbalas and Brinkman took the stage once again to contribute a song about inclines, the old public transits from Philadelphia, which received much appreciation from the audience.
The show was stopped cold with a chilling song by David Hanners (another of my favorites), who narrated a story about a Somali cab driver who was killed in Minneapolis. "This is a true story," Hanners said before beginning the song, titled "8/8/03," which ended with the somber realization that, "To you I'm just one more Somali / To me, you're just another fare."
Other performers in the second set were Patrik Tanner, Jennifer J. Holt and David Levin.
While audience members handed in their ballots and Horton tallied up the results, Brad Senne played a handful of tunes, including one that he wrote for a previous 36 hour contest about snow. Two awards were presented to the winners, with Lea Birbalas and Crystal Brinkman winning a large trophy for audience pick and David Brusie taking home a smaller trophy for "critic's pick," which included votes by Tony Thomas of minneapoliscast.com, Rich Horton of Rift, and myself.
Location Info:
Bryant Lake Bowl
Artist Info: Accelerated Love Affair, Andra Suchy, David Brusie, David Hanners, Eliza Blue, Grace Darling, Sam Keenan
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