I’ve known Marty Finkel for almost two years now, but I’ve know his music even longer. I reviewed his first CD Sleeping With the Stars for Rick’s Café and had already written the reviews for his second release plus a side project called Spinning Swords when the paper folded unexpectedly. Since then he has released two (!) more CDs, last year’s self-titled effort and his newest, the charmingly idealistic The Good Life. Tonight was the latter’s release party and as always I was impressed with the number of people in attendance, perhaps the biggest draw I’ve seen for a local act at the still young Frequency. In addition to his family there were scads of friends, which is no surprise given the fact that he’s one of the genuinely nicest guys I’ve ever met.
Following protocol for a new release party, the band played the disc straight through before playing a whole ‘nother set of older songs. Yep, I did say band. This was only the second band show he has done, and the first I’ve gotten to see. The band had opened for the unexpectedly popular Why? (as I’ve said before, why? indeed) back in April and I was left standing on the sidewalk when they inexplicably sold out Montmartre in advance. I’ve always enjoyed Marty solo but the band keeps him honest, and keeps his sincerity from being misconstrued as sap.
While the drummer looks like he should be holding down the rhythm for a hip hop crew, he does just fine with the pop songs and sweet ballads that Marty writes. The percussionist adds even more than you would expect with his collection of shakers and tambourines, and best of all a toy piano featured on the record’s title song. The bass player began the show on the stately upright bass but switched to electric for the show’s second half. Admittedly if I had been paying more attention I would have all their names since Marty did an excellent job of introducing them.
Marty predictably embarrassed his girlfriend by telling the non-joke, “How do you make a girl turn red?” “By telling her you wrote a song about her,” before playing the sweet “Love is Blind” with its border-line overly sentimental chorus “Even if I lost my sight, I’d still be seeing you.” After playing through the Good Life, Marty excused the band and played a number of songs on the keyboard. This also seemed to be a cue for the crowd to head for the bar as the room emptied for a handful of songs. While Marty isn’t the strongest player ever, in fact he often looks like he is concentrating too hard on the keys; the songs aren’t any less good. His fans louder (and probably drunker) than ever, shouts of “We love you Marty!” were quite common the rest of the night, for a second set of band songs, and demanded an encore even though Marty protested. “We’ve already played like 30 songs,” he beseeched them, “we don’t have any more,” before settling on a Coasters cover.
Openers Box of Baby Birds couldn’t have known what they were getting into. Instructed by the Frequency’s owner and booker to pick a band on the bill that they would be interested in playing with, Marty’s show seemed to be the only thing on the extensive schedule that complimented their sweet, mellow Pernice Brothers-style music. This was the Baby Birds first time playing outside of Chicago, but the band’s members are certainly no stranger to the stage or crowds. Surprisingly their bass player was none other than Matt Focht, lead singer-songwriter of Head of Femur, last seen in town in my basement, a band which got its start in Omaha alongside Bright Eyes and the other Saddle Creek bands. In fact Matt had just opened for Conor Oberst on several stops of his most recent solo tour.
Box of Baby Birds’ lead singer Gary James was delighted that I found their name so adorable since several people have expressed their distaste with what they perceive as negative imagery. It shouldn’t be a surprise that Conor was the first person who told him he thought the birds were dead. Like those who think Jeremiah Nelson’s Mysterious Bruises refer to domestic violence, their perceptions say a lot about a person. Anyway, the club was already so full before the listed 10 pm start time that they went on early, and unfortunately I missed their first three songs. They certainly enjoyed their time in Madison and I am guessing that it won’t be long till they are back, hopefully in the basement.
Adam Hooks’ last show at the Frequency, also with Marty, found him struggling to keep his 12 string guitar in tune which meant more time spent tuning than playing. Tonight he opted for the lower maintenance 6 string and was able to get most of the way through his set in the middle slot before disaster struck, this time in the form of a broken string. Luckily he was able to finish his enjoyable set with only five string strings. He has a great voice and a knack for catchy melodies, in addition to having a sense of humor. Early in the set he played a song about seeing Neil Patrick Harris in a burrito place in Albuquerque at bar time, which pretty much sums up the song. Seeing his NPH PHD! T-shirt after his set I asked if he had known that the Doogie Howser actor was hosting Saturday Night Live that night. He confessed that if he had he might not have been there. He finished the set with another celebrity tune, one which poked fun at Isaac Hayes for leaving South Park.
It can be hard to get people to come to shows in this town, so it was nice of Marty to give local boy Hooks and out-of-towners Box of Baby Birds a chance to be heard by a good crowd. Of course, he can’t seem to help being nice.
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