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Concert Report: Lisa Dewey, ARLO

This concert was at the Espresso Garden Cafe, which turns out to be kind of a neat little coffee shop with some interesting wall paintings. They also had what looked like good sandwiches, although they close the kitchen when the band starts so I didn't get to try one. They did still serve wine, though, which is a little strange in the coffee shop setting, but nice.

ARLO was the first band - two acoustic guitar playing female singers, a bass guitar, lead guitar, and drums. Both singers were decent, and the songs were reasonable folk-rock kind of things. They seemed to have a lot of fans in the crowd, and the show was entertaining. I didn't pay close attention to much of the lyrics, but it did seem a little simplistic thematically at times. But that could have been the wine's fault.

Lisa Dewey and the Lotus Life were up next, with Lisa playing acoustic guitar and singing with a lead guitar, bass guitar, and drums to help her out. She has a really cool voice, especially when using it in some of the lower ranges. The rest of the band was also good, very solid. Some of the songs started to sound a little similar in the setting they were in, and the sound was not as full as it was on the album. Everyone in my group really liked the "Taking out the trash" song. Heh. She also had some good crowd banter at the start, although it became a little strange (maybe too many in-jokes?) as it went on.

Overall, it was a nice show in a nice setting (although it would have been even better if we had gotten there early enough to get a table to go with our chairs).