A.J. Croce & Michael Bizar
In LA for the day I popped over to Largo to see AJ Croce and Michael Bizar last night. AJ has a new album out and recently contacted us about helping to promote it. Wanting to practice what I preach, it felt like a great opportunity to, yup, go see live music.
Walking into the dark and quiet, sit-down venue I was immediately struck by the attentiveness of the audience. This wasn't your typical stereotyped LA vibe-scene. (Cell phone policy is strictly enforced - hurray!) Best of all - people were actually genuinely interested in hearing the music, which completely shifted the mood of the room towards one of respect and positive energy for the artists and their art. AJ and Michael were already on stage a few songs into their set, and it wasn't long before I was captivated by the interplay between the musicians and the magic they were creating together.
AJ is the son of Jim Croce (Bad Bad Leroy Brown, or my favorite - Operator). Clearly a virtuoso piano player (and damn good guitarist for only a few years on the axe), AJ emanates 'artist' from head to toe, inside and out as he showed off his talent in a way that wasn't pushy or flamboyant, but merely as a treat to everyone in the room, himself included. Taking requests from the audience for any of his own songs plus +insert artist here+ ... could it be that AJ knows EVERY song by EVERY artist? We were truly in awe.
Michael played along on guitar for a majority of the songs, adding layers and riffs to heighten the mood and bring out more character as an ensemble. Like myself, Michael grew up north of Chicago and, unlike myself, played in the band Citrus for many years before moving out to California where he hooked up with AJ. SFers might know Michael from his weekly residence as the Boom Boom Room as Bizar Bazaar.
Michael rips on guitar - and while this acoustic set-up didn't really give him the room to stretch into the escape velocity mind bending opportunities of explosion rock I've come to know and love from him, it did give me a great chance to appreciate his skill and passion of his instrument of choice. It was sweet.
Check out AJ's new album Cantos, it's really good and gives you a real nice feel for the "organic" nature of this man with a solid past and bright future. Plus it's got "Maybe I'm Amazed" on it, which is just sick.
Of course it's all about the LIVE experience.
p.s. As pictured below, Canters Bakery was a solid late night treat.
Walking into the dark and quiet, sit-down venue I was immediately struck by the attentiveness of the audience. This wasn't your typical stereotyped LA vibe-scene. (Cell phone policy is strictly enforced - hurray!) Best of all - people were actually genuinely interested in hearing the music, which completely shifted the mood of the room towards one of respect and positive energy for the artists and their art. AJ and Michael were already on stage a few songs into their set, and it wasn't long before I was captivated by the interplay between the musicians and the magic they were creating together.
AJ is the son of Jim Croce (Bad Bad Leroy Brown, or my favorite - Operator). Clearly a virtuoso piano player (and damn good guitarist for only a few years on the axe), AJ emanates 'artist' from head to toe, inside and out as he showed off his talent in a way that wasn't pushy or flamboyant, but merely as a treat to everyone in the room, himself included. Taking requests from the audience for any of his own songs plus +insert artist here+ ... could it be that AJ knows EVERY song by EVERY artist? We were truly in awe.
Michael played along on guitar for a majority of the songs, adding layers and riffs to heighten the mood and bring out more character as an ensemble. Like myself, Michael grew up north of Chicago and, unlike myself, played in the band Citrus for many years before moving out to California where he hooked up with AJ. SFers might know Michael from his weekly residence as the Boom Boom Room as Bizar Bazaar.
Michael rips on guitar - and while this acoustic set-up didn't really give him the room to stretch into the escape velocity mind bending opportunities of explosion rock I've come to know and love from him, it did give me a great chance to appreciate his skill and passion of his instrument of choice. It was sweet.
Check out AJ's new album Cantos, it's really good and gives you a real nice feel for the "organic" nature of this man with a solid past and bright future. Plus it's got "Maybe I'm Amazed" on it, which is just sick.
Of course it's all about the LIVE experience.
p.s. As pictured below, Canters Bakery was a solid late night treat.
posted by Andy at
8:20 AM
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