From: James Anthofer
To: Herrera, Dave
Subject: Mercury Cafe Show – Gregory Alan Isakov and Bela Karoli
6/30/2008 12:34 AM
Hey Dave —
I didn’t get photos for the show, and I’m not sure a review is that useful without them: The Mercury Cafe is still the same, as usual. Gregory Alan Isakov is still pretty awesome — but Backbeat’s said that before.
Isakov was rocking a lot harder than his CD sounds. It was that kind of anthemic Bruce Springsteen/ Arcade Fire thing, though, not like rawk or something. The more interesting thing is that Julie Davis is really crazy. She took Gregory’s Showcase Award, re-awarded it to him (he thanked Jesus), and sang on his song (the second to last one). Then she had a little table next to her while she was playing, where she had the award and a drink. It sounds like more of a blog post type of thing [ed note: agreed] than anything else.
Also, Bela Karoli isn’t playing the rest of the summer because Brigid McAuliffe is traveling, I think. She’s at least out of Denver. Isakov mentioned the guy who played banjo on his record is in Ireland, too. Kind of a nice symmetry there, and they played a really banjo-sounding song without a banjo anyway, it was the one that featured Davis on backing vocals.
— James
