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There were only two bands on this bill, which made me pretty happy because I knew that I would be getting home pretty early. I was pretty stoked about seeing The New Amsterdams for the first time, but was a bit surprised that the club wasn't packed, even though it was a Tuesday night.
Augustana was already playing when I got there. I thought that they were a full band but they only had a pianist and acoustic guitarist on stage. The singer (guitarist) mentioned that the rest of the band was sick, which is why they watched from the crowd, drinking instead of playing. They sounded alright, but not amazing. Its tough to judge a band on an acoustic performance with absent members because there is a completely different energy. Their singer had a really strong voice and I enjoyed the harmonica playing, but I wasn't impressed all that much overall, with the exception of their closer, "Boston."
Matt Pryor took the stage a little early to play four solo acoustic songs to start their set. One of the songs he played was "9," which made me pretty damn happy. The other four members of the group eventually joined him nad they played a very laid back and relaxing set, led by Pryor's strong and familiar vocal chords. They were very personable on stage, with Pryor even buying a guy a beer after jumping down his throat for requesting "Campfire Kansas" (which was a pretty funny altercation). The band looked like they were having a lot of fun on stage, even though the crowd wasn't huge, which gave their songs an extra sense of enjoyment. THey had a lot of entertaining anticdotes and played a good mix of songs, including "Adeline" for the very first time. They played for over an hour, keeping the crowd engaged the whole time. They slowed a few of their songs down ("Idaho" being one), but they did them in such a way that they sounded as good as the original versions, if not better. After their set, Pryor played ? by his merch table for the 20 or so people who were still there.
Written by: RF