{"id":10863,"date":"2012-02-21T14:29:23","date_gmt":"2012-02-21T18:29:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.opticality.com\/blog\/?p=10863"},"modified":"2012-02-21T14:35:17","modified_gmt":"2012-02-21T18:35:17","slug":"the-vanity-belles-at-arlenes-grocery","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/opticality.com\/blog\/2012\/02\/21\/the-vanity-belles-at-arlenes-grocery\/","title":{"rendered":"The Vanity Belles at Arlene&rsquo;s Grocery"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a title=\"The Vanity Belles\" href=\"http:\/\/www.thevanitybelles.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">The Vanity Belles<\/a> have a month-long residency at <a title=\"Arlene's Grocery\" href=\"http:\/\/www.arlenesgrocery.net\/\" target=\"_blank\">Arlene\u2019s Grocery<\/a>, every Monday at 8pm in February. We missed the first two and expected to miss last night as well. I was sick the last two weeks of January and we\u2019ve been gone all of February. We cut our trip short by a few days, largely to make it to last night\u2019s show. Glad we did!<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.opticality.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/02\/TheVanityBelles.jpg\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" style=\"background-image: none; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; padding-top: 0px; border: 0px;\" title=\"TheVanityBelles\" src=\"https:\/\/www.opticality.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/02\/TheVanityBelles_thumb.jpg\" alt=\"TheVanityBelles\" width=\"200\" height=\"216\" border=\"0\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Amazingly, last night was the first full set we\u2019ve see of the Belles! I honestly believe that they peek at my travel calendar and purposely schedule their shows for when I have to be out of town. At least I finally fooled them by coming home earlier than expected. Take that Belles! <img decoding=\"async\" class=\"wlEmoticon wlEmoticon-winkingsmile\" style=\"border-style: none;\" src=\"https:\/\/www.opticality.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/02\/wlEmoticon-winkingsmile.png\" alt=\"Winking smile\" \/><\/p>\n<p>A quick recap:<\/p>\n<p>The Vanity Belles (Carrie Welling and Jessie Rae Waltz) describe themselves as Cosmo-Country. Who am I to argue? Here\u2019s what I can assure you of:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Carrie and Jessi have extraordinary voices, each sings lead wonderfully<\/li>\n<li>They harmonize amazingly<\/li>\n<li>They are excellent songwriters<\/li>\n<li>They\u2019re not hard to look at (OK, that one has nothing to do with music, my apologies)<\/li>\n<li>When they employ a band, their taste in musicians is exquisite<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>All of the above was in abundance last night. The ladies were in fine voice, the set selection very upbeat (many songs feeling closer to rock). They were complemented by an incredible band with special guest stars thrown in just in case you needed to amp up the excitement a bit.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.opticality.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/02\/CarrieWelling.jpg\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" style=\"background-image: none; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; padding-top: 0px; border: 0px;\" title=\"CarrieWelling\" src=\"https:\/\/www.opticality.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/02\/CarrieWelling_thumb.jpg\" alt=\"CarrieWelling\" width=\"139\" height=\"216\" border=\"0\" \/><\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.opticality.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/02\/JessiRaeWaltz.jpg\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" style=\"background-image: none; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; padding-top: 0px; border: 0px;\" title=\"JessiRaeWaltz\" src=\"https:\/\/www.opticality.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/02\/JessiRaeWaltz_thumb.jpg\" alt=\"JessiRaeWaltz\" width=\"145\" height=\"216\" border=\"0\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>On one of the more mellow (yet still very powerful) songs, Jessi played the keyboards and Carrie took up the acoustic guitar. Both played well and sang phenomenally.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.opticality.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/02\/TheVanityBellesWithInstruments.jpg\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" style=\"background-image: none; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; padding-top: 0px; border: 0px;\" title=\"TheVanityBellesWithInstruments\" src=\"https:\/\/www.opticality.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/02\/TheVanityBellesWithInstruments_thumb.jpg\" alt=\"TheVanityBellesWithInstruments\" width=\"216\" height=\"216\" border=\"0\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>After the show, we bought two copies of the 3-song EP they released last year (yes, they scheduled the EP Release Show for when we were out of town). All three songs are wonderful!<\/p>\n<p>We also backed their recent <a title=\"Kickstarter\" href=\"http:\/\/www.kickstarter.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">Kickstarter<\/a> early (they were successful) and are looking forward to the new full-length CD, which should be coming out in the not-too-distant future.<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019ll cover the core band first, then the two special guests, even though one of the special guests was on stage for the first number, replacing one of the core band members. Left-to-right on stage:<\/p>\n<p><a title=\"Ben Morgan\" href=\"http:\/\/www.benmorganmusic.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">Ben Morgan<\/a> on electronic keyboards. Ben is extremely talented on the keyboards. We\u2019ve seen him support the Belles a number of times. He was excellent last night.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.opticality.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/02\/BenMorgan.jpg\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" style=\"background-image: none; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; padding-top: 0px; border: 0px;\" title=\"BenMorgan\" src=\"https:\/\/www.opticality.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/02\/BenMorgan_thumb.jpg\" alt=\"BenMorgan\" width=\"194\" height=\"216\" border=\"0\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a title=\"Oscar Bautista\" href=\"http:\/\/www.myspace.com\/oscarbautista\" target=\"_blank\">Oscar Bautista<\/a> on electric and acoustic guitars. Oscar is always fantastic. In fact, the last show we saw, just over a month ago, was also part of month-long Arlene\u2019s residency, a Police tribute band. We went solely to see Oscar. While he was great throughout last night\u2019s set, during No Regrets, the ladies stepped aside and let Oscar take over the lead. The sound and feel was reminiscent of listening to a great jam band reel you in with a long guitar solo. Very well done!<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.opticality.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/02\/OscarBautista.jpg\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" style=\"background-image: none; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; padding-top: 0px; border: 0px;\" title=\"OscarBautista\" src=\"https:\/\/www.opticality.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/02\/OscarBautista_thumb.jpg\" alt=\"OscarBautista\" width=\"166\" height=\"216\" border=\"0\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a title=\"Zach Jones\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/thestonelonesome?sk=info\" target=\"_blank\">Zach Jones<\/a> on drums. Zach is one of our favorite drummers. It was a complete surprise to see him playing with the Belles last night. He was at the top of his game. So are the other regular drummers that the Belles use, so it\u2019s clear they can attract the best talent when they come a callin\u2019.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.opticality.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/02\/ZachJonesDrums.jpg\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" style=\"background-image: none; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; padding-top: 0px; border: 0px;\" title=\"ZachJonesDrums\" src=\"https:\/\/www.opticality.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/02\/ZachJonesDrums_thumb.jpg\" alt=\"ZachJonesDrums\" width=\"152\" height=\"216\" border=\"0\" \/><\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.opticality.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/02\/ZachJones.jpg\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" style=\"background-image: none; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; padding-top: 0px; border: 0px;\" title=\"ZachJones\" src=\"https:\/\/www.opticality.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/02\/ZachJones_thumb.jpg\" alt=\"ZachJones\" width=\"219\" height=\"216\" border=\"0\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a title=\"Chris Anderson\" href=\"http:\/\/www.myspace.com\/chrisandersonbass\" target=\"_blank\">Chris Anderson<\/a> on electric bass. Chis is an amazing bass player with tremendous versatility. Arlene\u2019s is a very loud club, often most noticeable in the bass shaking the joint on every note. I have little issue with it when the bass player has the skill that Chris has. Last night, Chris shook me, in a good way!<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.opticality.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/02\/ChrisAndersonBass.jpg\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" style=\"background-image: none; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; padding-top: 0px; border: 0px;\" title=\"ChrisAndersonBass\" src=\"https:\/\/www.opticality.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/02\/ChrisAndersonBass_thumb.jpg\" alt=\"ChrisAndersonBass\" width=\"107\" height=\"216\" border=\"0\" \/><\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.opticality.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/02\/ChrisAnderson.jpg\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" style=\"background-image: none; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; padding-top: 0px; border: 0px;\" title=\"ChrisAnderson\" src=\"https:\/\/www.opticality.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/02\/ChrisAnderson_thumb.jpg\" alt=\"ChrisAnderson\" width=\"240\" height=\"181\" border=\"0\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a title=\"Cameron Mitchell\" href=\"http:\/\/www.cameronmitchell.net\/see.html\" target=\"_blank\">Cameron Mitchell<\/a> on electric and acoustic guitars. While Oscar took most of the leads, Cameron was playing rhythm for the most part, very well. He also seemed to be one of the leaders in terms of cueing the rest of the band.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.opticality.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/02\/CameronMitchell.jpg\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" style=\"background-image: none; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; padding-top: 0px; border: 0px;\" title=\"CameronMitchell\" src=\"https:\/\/www.opticality.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/02\/CameronMitchell_thumb.jpg\" alt=\"CameronMitchell\" width=\"138\" height=\"220\" border=\"0\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>On to the guests.<\/p>\n<p><a title=\"Rebecca Haviland\" href=\"http:\/\/www.rebeccahaviland.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">Rebecca Haviland<\/a> joined for three numbers, including the first one. Rebecca is one of our favorite singer\/songwriters (she co-writes and performs with Chris Anderson). In her own band Rebecca plays electric guitar. The first time we ever saw her play an instrument though, it was the grand piano, just over a year ago. I think she\u2019s great on the keyboards, and I can\u2019t believe it\u2019s taken this long to see her tickle the (fake) ivories again.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.opticality.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/02\/RebeccaHaviland.jpg\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" style=\"background-image: none; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; padding-top: 0px; border: 0px;\" title=\"RebeccaHaviland\" src=\"https:\/\/www.opticality.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/02\/RebeccaHaviland_thumb.jpg\" alt=\"RebeccaHaviland\" width=\"168\" height=\"216\" border=\"0\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>In addition to playing the keyboards, Rebecca sang background vocals on the closing number. The Belles don\u2019t need any help in the vocal department, but if they\u2019re going to invite a third voice into the mix, it would be hard to pick someone better suited to hold their own than Rebecca.<\/p>\n<p>We didn\u2019t know until yesterday afternoon that Rebecca would be joining them, so it was an extra special treat.<\/p>\n<p><a title=\"Sierra Noble\" href=\"http:\/\/www.sierranoble.ca\/\" target=\"_blank\">Sierra Noble<\/a> played the fiddle on two numbers. Yesterday was Sierra\u2019s 22nd birthday. I\u2019m glad that she chose to celebrate it on stage, entertaining us, rather than in a more private way. I knew for a week that Sierra was joining and it was one of the reasons for cutting our trip short. I don\u2019t think Sierra will be there next Monday, so last night would have a special flavor all its own.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.opticality.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/02\/SierraNoble.jpg\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" style=\"background-image: none; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; padding-top: 0px; border: 0px;\" title=\"SierraNoble\" src=\"https:\/\/www.opticality.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/02\/SierraNoble_thumb.jpg\" alt=\"SierraNoble\" width=\"193\" height=\"216\" border=\"0\" \/><\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.opticality.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/02\/HappyBirthdaySierraNoble.jpg\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" style=\"background-image: none; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; padding-top: 0px; border: 0px;\" title=\"HappyBirthdaySierraNoble\" src=\"https:\/\/www.opticality.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/02\/HappyBirthdaySierraNoble_thumb.jpg\" alt=\"HappyBirthdaySierraNoble\" width=\"240\" height=\"207\" border=\"0\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>We bumped into a number of friends that we haven\u2019t seen in a month (always a big draw for going out). Hopefully, we made a new one too (I\u2019m looking at you Jack!). <img decoding=\"async\" class=\"wlEmoticon wlEmoticon-smile\" style=\"border-style: none;\" src=\"https:\/\/www.opticality.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/02\/wlEmoticon-smile.png\" alt=\"Smile\" \/><\/p>\n<p>We\u2019re going to do our best to make it out to Arlene\u2019s next Monday at 8pm for the final show in the residency. Do yourself a favor and come out as well!<\/p>\n<p>The Vanity Belles usually hand out goodies at each show (I only know that from Twitter, this being our first full set). Here\u2019s a photo of the set list, with the front and back of the EP, and the goodie bag (front and back). Don\u2019t miss next week\u2019s treats!<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.opticality.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/02\/SetListEPandGoodies.jpg\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" style=\"background-image: none; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; padding-top: 0px; border: 0px;\" title=\"SetListEPandGoodies\" src=\"https:\/\/www.opticality.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/02\/SetListEPandGoodies_thumb.jpg\" alt=\"SetListEPandGoodies\" width=\"188\" height=\"216\" border=\"0\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Vanity Belles have a month-long residency at Arlene\u2019s Grocery, every Monday at 8pm in February. We missed the first two and expected to miss last night as well. I was sick the last two weeks of January and we\u2019ve been gone all of February. We cut our trip short by a few days, largely [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"activitypub_content_warning":"","activitypub_content_visibility":"","activitypub_max_image_attachments":4,"activitypub_interaction_policy_quote":"anyone","activitypub_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17,2],"tags":[559,1078,1206,912,602,913,1367,1002,818,827,911,1032],"class_list":["post-10863","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-music","category-2","tag-arlenes-grocery","tag-ben-morgan","tag-cameron-mitchell","tag-carrie-welling","tag-chris-anderson","tag-jessi-rae-waltz","tag-music","tag-oscar-bautista","tag-rebecca-haviland","tag-sierra-noble","tag-the-vanity-belles","tag-zach-jones"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/opticality.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10863","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/opticality.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/opticality.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/opticality.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/opticality.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10863"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/opticality.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10863\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10868,"href":"https:\/\/opticality.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10863\/revisions\/10868"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/opticality.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10863"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/opticality.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10863"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/opticality.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10863"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}