{"id":11888,"date":"2012-03-22T21:50:20","date_gmt":"2012-03-23T01:50:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.opticality.com\/blog\/?p=11888"},"modified":"2012-03-22T21:52:36","modified_gmt":"2012-03-23T01:52:36","slug":"abby-payne-at-rockwood-music-hall-stage-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/opticality.com\/blog\/2012\/03\/22\/abby-payne-at-rockwood-music-hall-stage-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Abby Payne at Rockwood Music Hall Stage 2"},"content":{"rendered":"

Abby Payne<\/a> headlined a set at Rockwood Music Hall<\/a> Stage 2. It was her first headlining set at Stage 2 and I\u2019m willing to bet it won\u2019t be her last!<\/p>\n

\"AbbyPayne\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I\u2019ve seen Abby perform two full sets (among some other appearances). The first time, with a full band at Rockwood 1, I had a hard time overcoming the volume.<\/p>\n

Last time, Abby was incredible in every possible respect<\/a>, performing a much quieter set with a trio, also at Rockwood 1. So, I was excited to see her play last night, but I admit to a little trepidation considering that this was going to be a full band set again.<\/p>\n

Not to worry<\/strong>! Partially due to Stage 2 being much more expansive (allowing volumes to go higher with fewer problems), and partially due to everyone just playing at an appropriate volume, the set was fantastic.<\/p>\n

The first full-band show, Abby played on the electronic keyboards and someone else played the grand piano. Last night they flipped, with Abby spending the entire set at the piano. She\u2019s excellent, and I typically prefer the sound of the piano over the keyboards, so that was a nice surprise as well.<\/p>\n

Abby performed a number of the same songs that she did with the trio, but they really took on a dramatically different character. Most of the set (with the obvious exception of the one song Abby performed solo) was power pop. Driving rhythms, soaring vocals, excellent musicianship. The trio had a broad range of genres, but it was really mellow, get lost in the music, not the energy kind of stuff.<\/p>\n

Great to know that Abby\u2019s material holds up both ways.<\/p>\n

Supporting Abby, left-to-right on stage:<\/p>\n

JP Schlegelmilch<\/a> on electronic keyboards and vocals. I already noted that last time, he was on the piano when she was on the keys. JP was excellent last night, playing a more organ like sound, complementing Abby\u2019s piano play.<\/p>\n

\"JPSchlegelmilch\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Stephen Chopek<\/a> on drums. Stephen was filling in for Abby\u2019s normal drummer, Kenny Shaw<\/a>. Considering that we see Kenny more than any other drummer, I think he was hiding from us (that\u2019s my story and I\u2019m sticking to it!). Not to worry, we both love Stephen\u2019s play. In fact, this was a real treat because most of the other sets that we\u2019ve seen him play have been more folk oriented where he\u2019s impressed with his subtlety.<\/p>\n

\"StephenChopek\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Last night\u2019s power pop gave Stephen a chance to open it up quite a bit. I didn\u2019t doubt for a second that he\u2019s comfortable with that style, since I know that he toured with John Meyer for a year. \"Smile\" We haven\u2019t seen Stephen perform in 10 months. That\u2019s just way too long, but he\u2019s on the road non-stop, so we\u2019ll take what we can get!<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s Stephen, levitating a cymbal. Quite impressive! (Sorry, I couldn\u2019t resist\u2026)<\/p>\n

\"StephenChopekLevitatingCymbal\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Chris Anderson<\/a> on electric bass and vocals. This was our third set of the night watching Chris play. All three sets were radically different from one another. No matter, Chris delights in all genres.<\/p>\n

\"ChrisAnderson\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Wil Farr<\/a> on electric guitar and vocals. Wil is excellent on the guitar. I knew this from the first time I saw him play with Abby, though that night it was primarily his amp which caused my issues with the volume. No such problems last night, so Wil\u2019s play came shining through. He was also a bit more primary on the backup vocals with Abby than the others.<\/p>\n

\"WilFarr\"<\/a><\/p>\n

OK, I\u2019m ready for the next one, trio or full band. Let\u2019s get it going!<\/p>\n

\"JPSchlegelmilchWilFarrChrisAndersonStephenChopek\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Here\u2019s the set list:<\/p>\n

\"SetList\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Abby Payne headlined a set at Rockwood Music Hall Stage 2. It was her first headlining set at Stage 2 and I\u2019m willing to bet it won\u2019t be her last! I\u2019ve seen Abby perform two full sets (among some other appearances). The first time, with a full band at Rockwood 1, I had a hard […]<\/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":[941,602,942,1367,493,817,1275],"class_list":["post-11888","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-music","category-2","tag-abby-payne","tag-chris-anderson","tag-jp-schlegelmilch","tag-music","tag-rockwood-music-hall","tag-stephen-chopek","tag-wil-farr"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/opticality.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11888","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=11888"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/opticality.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11888\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11892,"href":"https:\/\/opticality.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11888\/revisions\/11892"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/opticality.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11888"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/opticality.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11888"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/opticality.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11888"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}