May 032009
 

Last night we went with some friends to Bangkok blues in Falls Church to hear Lisa Taylor. The Zen consultants were playing after Lisa, so we stuck around to hear some of their stuff too.

I’ll talk mostly about the sound of Lisa’s band, because I couldn’t follow the lyrics well enough to get into the songwriting. She had a standard rock band going, with rhythm acoustic guitar, lead electric guitar, drums, bass, and keys. Lisa’s sister Dana sang a lot of harmonies and threw in some great leads as well. Dana even played some snazzy flute on a few numbers.

The band was great. Lisa’s songs have a variety of styles, mostly reminding me of folky rock stuff from the seventies. As a performer she is very engaging and sweet with the folks in the audience, and there is a lot of fun energy from the whole band. It was great to chat a little with Lisa afterward as well.

I was really digging her keyboard player’s sounds. He was playing in the background almost the entire set, just rocking out with some nice piano or organ sounds. I wish that a few of the extended electric guitar solos could have been dropped in favor of giving this guy a few leads on his keys. Otherwise they sounded great.

After Lisa’s band, the Zen Consultants started playing around 10:00 pm. We had been there for over three hours at that point, so we only stuck around for three or four of their numbers. They were starting off with some nice covers of The Band, Dylan, Van Morrison. I really love this kind of material, and they sounded pretty good playing electric. I’ve heard various members of the ZCs doing acoustic stuff at various folky things, but this was my first chance to check them all out together gone electric. Pretty good. We were sitting closer to the stage than anyone else in the place, so it was a bit loud for us. But I hope to hear them again soon for a little more of their sixties and seventies rock stuff. Pretty

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