Send to KindleWe were planning to catch the 3 and 5pm sets at Rockwood Music Hall. Normally, that means we’d sit through the 4pm set no matter who it was. Considering that yesterday was one of the last gorgeous days of 2011, a reasonable alternative would have been to stretch our legs on the Lower East Side (LES) instead.
I clicked through to check out who was playing, just in case.
OK SWEETHEART was listed. I streamed a bit of the music, but they weren’t complete songs, so I short-circuited the process and clicked through to the video of the title cut of their current CD, Home. Nice sound, fun/quirky video, problem solved, we were going to stay to see them.
Erin Austin is the heart in OK SWEETHEART (I know, sometimes I’m too clever for my own good). She’s the person in the video. In 2008 she won the John Lennon Songwriting Award for Pop!
Erin played the grand piano on all but two numbers. On one of those she sat at the drums and hit the bass drum twice in a row at the end of a certain pattern. On one other she stood and sang without any instrument.
The key word in the above is sang. She has a beautiful voice, perfectly suited to the 60’s pop style that she credits as her inspiration. She played the piano well too.
She writes catchy songs and delivers them extremely well. After the show I told her that I was way more impressed with their live performance than I was with the video, and the video obviously got me to the show, so it too was good.
In looking at the bios/info pages on a number of sites, there are many people credited with collaborating on the CD Home. None of those people seems to be currently touring with Erin. Since I couldn’t find good links for the two names listed and therefore couldn’t find any photos, I can’t be sure that I saw the people I’m about to name.
Bradley Waller on drums, electric guitar and vocals. Bradley drummed on every song that Erin played piano on. He switched to finger-picking an electric guitar on the two numbers that Erin abandoned the piano on. He was excellent on the drums and did a fine (understated) job on the guitar.
He sang harmony (nearly always three-part) throughout the set, but mostly it was short bursts. On one number they really highlighted the harmonies. It was gorgeous.
Alan de Leon Uribe on electric bass, grand piano and vocals. Most of the set saw Alan playing solid (if a bit uninspired) bass. The last two songs took it up a few notches, so he has skills, they’re just not utilized in all of the songs. When Erin left the piano, Alan took over (for both songs). He was understated on that as well, so I can’t really judge his skills.
As mentioned above with Bradley, Alan sang harmony throughout with Erin. I was surprised that I could hear him very well, even though he stood reasonably far back from his mic. Alan did a very nice job.
The set was wonderful. I don’t have a set list to share with you because they made it up as they went along. Since I don’t know their music, I’d be hard-pressed to reproduce it from memory, so I won’t try.
Without a doubt, I’d go see them again!
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