Friday Random Ten

"Love" by John Lennon on The John Lennon Collection
"Solid As The Rock" by Michael English on Michael English
"Two Of A Kind, Working On A Full House" by Garth Brooks on The Hits
"Here In America" by Rich Mullins* on A Liturgy, A Legacy & A Ragamuffin Band
"Back to Where I Was" by Eric Hutchinson* on Sounds Like This
"Walkin' After Midnight" by Madeleine Peyroux on Dreamland
"Sur: Regreso Al Amor" by Yo-Yo Ma on Soul of the Tango: The Music of Astor Piazzolla
"When I Am Gone" by 4HIM on 4 Him
"All These Days Undone" by Anything Box on Peace
"Pilgrim" by Enya on A Day Without Rain

I'm really enjoying the recent discovery of Eric Hutchinson. I went and saw OAR a couple weeks ago at Austin Music Hall. I'm not a big OAR fan -- I certainly couldn't name any of their songs. However, a friend had two tickets and his +1 backed out on him, so I graciously agreed to make sure that other ticket didn't go unused. Okay, so I wasn't so gracious. I'd seen OAR before at Stubbs, and I remembered feeling really out of place. Pretty much everyone at the show was under 21 and most were still in highschool, so I was the oldest person there by about 10 years. Put that together with seeing a band I didn't know, and it was a generally awkward evening. With that experience under my belt, I wasn't real gung-ho about going, but I had no other plans, so I went.

However, this show was a totally different show than the Stubbs show. For starters, the crowd was older, and I didn't feel so out of place as the only person without an "X" on my hand. Also, somehow I've never seen a show at AMH, and it was a very cool venue. Nice lighting, great acoustics, et cetera. And it helped that the opening act came out with lots of energy and talented musicians and catchy tunes. He was pretty poppy and looked like one of the Beatles, but it was a lot of fun to listen to. We had to look him up later to see who it was (I guess we missed the introduction), but I went ahead and picked up his CD. This particular track isn't his most catchy, but I like it.

I tend to have better luck with opening bands and relative unknowns than I've had with headliners. I'm planning to go see two complete unknowns tomorrow. Maybe that will result in a few more new favorites.

* Acts I've seen live