Off to see Audra Mae and Where's Moo at Silverlake Lounge

Where’s Moo. On their equipment is an IO Echo sticker. Hey, can’t go wrong there. This band has a lead singer who is more than willing to give up the attention to his band mates. There were several times when he moved to the background and gave it up to the others. He also has a singing style where he cups the microphone while singing. This band uses a computer with the lead singer hovering over the monitor every other song. The bass player was a fill in. This seems to be a common theme that I’ve noticed recently, bands not having their current line-up for a night and needing friends to help them out. The bass player was a previous member of the band so it worked out okay for them. The bass player was helped as needed. It appeared that the guitarist would occasionally take on duties belonging to the bass player. There was a couple interesting moments on stage. When the band was starting their set, they began by doing a sound check and then just went right into their set. Another moment occurred when the guitarist was taking over the responsibilities of the bass player. While trying to direct some of the onstage action, the guitarist lost his guitar pick. The lead singer, not seeing it, stepped on it. The guitar player knelt down and tried to pull it out from underneath the foot of the lead singer, but couldn’t. Finally, the lead singer shifted his weight just a bit and the guitarist was able to recover his pick. How would I describe their music? It is hard for me to describe their music. Their website includes reviews that describe them a bit REM-ish, Cranberries-ish. I can see how those bands might reflect their influences.

Audra Mae. It was apparent very quickly that a group of people that night were there to see Audra Mae. About five minutes before her set began, the crowd started to edge towards the stage. I’ve seen her perform 3 or 4 times previously; however, she was always either solo or with two back-up singers and a musician. This time around she had the whole band out. She had two back-up singers along with five musicians. It was great seeing her in a different light. She gave it her all for the crowd. She started off her set with a jacket on, but by the start of the second song she had to take it off. The crowd loved the set. A couple of people were climbing atop the seats around the bar to get a better look. One of the back-up singers was Jodie from The Automatic Music Explosion. For this set, she had a totally different look to her. Much more country-blues-rock-folk look versus the shoe-string, make-up look for AME.

Yes: I've been hanging out at Silverlake Lounge a lot over the last couple of weeks.