B-Sides Review: Caleb Hawley

Now it may seem like I talk about this guy a good bit. Talk to me and you'll hear me mention bands like MR.BUNGLE and artists like Trace Bundy a lot too. I talk about these guys and build hype about these guys because they really are that good. These guys take their genre and they do things to it that are innovative and fresh. They make music that is interesting and perform shows that are intimate as well as immensely entertaining (obviously MR.BUNGLE excluded since they broke up a while ago). That's what it takes for me to hype an act.

Every time I see Caleb Hawley, it's something new. The first time I saw him, he was with a trio and what stood out was when he played Reach the Zenith with interpretive dance in the background. The next time I saw him was in a barn in the middle of nowhere, as a solo act. What struck me there was his ability to adapt to his circumstances and still be able to have fun playing a gig that, very clearly, sucked. After that, I played a gig with him in a writers in the round styled gig where all of the artists really built off of what had been played before them.

This time was yet another different arrangement - a full band. I had heard rumor of this band and had heard that it was a fun show. My thinking was that it'd be like a lot of his recorded work, which had been done with a full band. While that was somewhat the case, this was more along the lines of a single act variety show. Every song was so distinctly different from the others, yet was held together by the overriding jazz and soul infused themes and the antics of Hawley's style.

While other shows had one or two specials throughout the show, this evolution of Caleb's set was peppered with things going above and beyond the singer/songwriter repertoire.

• The first of these was the mario theme breakdown. It just ...happened. It fit, but was totally unexpected.
• A few songs later, I opened up Gone For Good with a version of my piece, Doppelganger. The transition was completely unrehearsed, yet seamless.
• At some point, I'm not entirely sure of the order, Fargo made an appearance during Who's Your Doggie? by running up onto stage to say hi.
• After that, he switched over to electric guitar. This allowed for some nice bluesy solos and some rocking out. After the show I saw a tweet from a fellow student that read something like "Caleb Hawley reminded me that guitar solos can be cool"
• A cover of Boyz II Men's I'll Make Love to You. My sister thought this was creepy, but by this time Caleb had developed his personality on stage and this parody fit perfectly. It included an a capella section where all of the members of the band could barely hold it together. Then to add to the perceived creepiness, Caleb got out the pitch shifter and dropped his voice an octave or so so that he could get a real sultry deep voice. It was hilarious.
•  To end his set, he started by singing a song about baking cookies. Apparently he wrote this funk inspired tune when he was 15. This is where he brought out some crowd participation. First, he had people cheer for their favorite type of cookie. Some cheering - nothing big. Then, he brought some kids up on stage to dance ...and taught them the cookie dance. Which obviously led to everyone in the union singing and dancing "Pour it, pour it; stir it up; stick it in your mouth and shake your butt."

And I leave you with this: