In 1980, I saw U2 at a small venue called Privates on Manhattan’s upper east side. Believe it or not, I went for the opening act (I think, memory getting fuzzy), Teardrop Explodes. Anyway, I remember thinking after hearing U2 that this was a group that whose fame would grow larger than anyone, probably even they, thought possible at the time. They were tight, and even though their rock and roll didn’t push at the complexity envelope, Bono’s voice made every song an anthem. They had an “energy” unparalleled at the time.
I felt similarly last night when I went to hear Nicole Atkins and The Black Sea at a dive of a club in St. Louis. I had heard their song, The Tower, on the community radio station earlier in the week. She’s got a powerful voice with incredible range. We’re talking power like Grace Slick, Annie Haslam, Janice Joplin, Annie Lennox, and Evanescence. Not only is their music influenced by classical overtones, but it has this exotic Russian or slavic backdrop. Maybe that’s because the lead guitarist is Russian, or at least has a Russian name, Irina Yalkowsky, and looks to be of Russian extraction, and she is every bit as talented at Ms. Atkins.
There were only 50, maybe 75 people in the club, though the band apparently has played on Late Night with Letterman, the Bowery Ballroom in New York, and other name joints so their story obviously hasn’t made big news out here in the Midwest. And if her Wikipedia entry is accurate, one of her first music purchases was Traffic’s John Barleycorn, which, if not on my top ten favorites of all time (which changes with my mood), always hovers close by.
This is a group worth keeping tabs on!
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