Review: May First Friday Overview

So last night was the last First Friday of the school year here at Messiah College. I've mentioned these events a few times before. These are the legacy that I intend to leave behind here. Since it was the last one ever, I had 10 acts over 7 hours. It's was a ton of work, but getting to sit down and listen to the outcome of this makes it worth it.

Ablen - This is a duo comprised of Abby Madden and Helen Furry. Abby has a smooth voice that works well for the singer/songwriter getup. Helen's voice is a great compliment to Abby's, with a bit more range, able to reach a bit higher. The duo both sing and play guitar, with Helen on violin for a few songs. Being able to switch up the instrumentation a bit like that really helps keep their sets interesting. As far as songwriters, they've got things down pretty solid. As far as performing goes, you can tell that they're young performers and could use some better flow, but that's the point of the First Friday events.

Billy Arboleda - Billy's a singer/songwriter to the tune of the band U2. His song structure isn't too bad and his chord progressions are better than the average singer/songwriter. His voice has a hint of the modern rock sound to it - maybe just a bit more mellow. When it's on, it's not too bad, but vocally it was like the same song over and over. Billy definitely has a ways to go, but he's got good ideas. It was definitely interesting getting to see him in a setting where he's got a whole set. I think that's where you really see an artists strengths and weaknesses. In the case of the first two acts, they need some fine tuning and need to learn better crowd interaction.

Matt Wagner - Matt's got a good bit of experience coming into this. He's played 2 or 3 First Friday's before and I've seen him promoting various gigs that he's had near campus. Again, a singer/songwriter. However, Matt's also got a band that he brought up for a handful of songs. Andrew Algier on some sort of hand drum thing, Craig Kyle on melodica, and a brief appearance by Kyle Kraft. It kept things interesting. They played a handful of covers from people like Sufjan Stevens and Elliott Smith, but mostly Matt Wagner originals. And he's a good songwriter. Like his songs are ones that you could see yourself singing along to. Songs like Vienna and October are the kinds of songs that make it. They've got that raw indie feel to them. But it's good. And well written. He's got a future with this stuff, and that's good because he's a music major with a guitar concentration or something like that...

Trey Overholt - Trey was one of the "featured" artists this month. He's a Messiah grad still doing music on the side every once in a while. Unfortunately, he doesn't have any studio recordings. That's something that needs to be done though. He's got a slower style that mixes smooth soulful vocals around sparsely placed chord textures. His songs tended to be pretty long, but I didn't notice this until a friend pointed it out. They were long songs, but I didn't notice. I mean, I like longer songs, but often times with singer/songwriters, a long song means a repetitive song. Not the case. Trey doesn't play out often, but he's someone worth tracking down and checking out.

David Hampson - Actually, David wasn't after Trey. I played and then the Lost in the Sauce Trio (David, Chris Yoder, and I) played. It was fun, but I can't really review my own material... So then we get to David. I may have written about his music before. David's a great story teller. His songs are stories and are excellent. His downfall is in his admittedly poor guitar skills. I've worked with David a bit and I'm trying to help him out with that, but there is still a long way to go. Overall, his deep grisly vocals and captivating stories keep you listening and engaged.

Camela Widad Kraemer - Camela does this for a living. From small solo gigs to gigs with a full band to organizing festivals, this is her life. And she's good at it. It's unfortunate that there were so few people out to hear her, but she didn't let that get her down. She kept her stories engaging and even had some Messiah related stories. The stories were interesting, but to make it as a singer/songwriter, you've got to have more than that. The songs themselves were great. She's got a voice that will melt you that's dialed in on each inflection and every note.

Anthony Francesco - Anthony was supposed to play first, but due to some technical issues and him being sick, he wasn't able to play. Thankfully, Natalie Ness was gracious enough to lend him the beginning of her set to play a few songs. He only got two in, but it was enough to make note of. Anthony's got a great feel for both blues and folk music. I'd compare him to Iron & Wine with vocals that are a bit more meek and timid. Usually anytime that you see Anthony play, his first few songs are notably full of stage fright and nerves. He told me that he had been working on that and it showed. Though he only got two songs in, they were two songs that were solid and comfortable.

Natalie Ness - I've heard Natalie a hundred times before. And it never gets old. She's covering stuff like Alicia Keys and Beyonce and nailing it. There was also an Imogen Heap cover, Phantogram, and Bon Iver... But then there's her original stuff. You've got this white girl with the vocal chords and charisma of Beyonce with an acoustic guitar with skills to match. She does some stuff on keys as well, but the guitar work is where she shines. Her live show is good, but she definitely needs to work on the professionalism. She'll be taking next semester off to work on music, so I'm looking forward to seeing what that brings.

To Play or to Organize

Organizing more of these First Friday events has made me realize how much I enjoy just getting to see people play. First Fridays at Messiah is about the students and the musicians who want to get out there and play, but haven't been able to. Consequently, unless someone drops out at the last minute, I don't play at them.

I love this opportunity. It's one Friday night a month, but it's also one of the busiest in terms of the arts. The idea of a First Friday is definitely not a new one - I didn't make this up. The idea came after I had participated in many First Fridays elsewhere.

Thankfully First Fridays are more active over the summer, when school's not in session, so I can still participate in others then. But I'm graduating... I want to keep helping with Messiah's First Fridays to see it off to a good start, but if I were to, in the future, organize First Fridays, they probably wouldn't be at a school. And so they would probably run year-round or something to that extent. And so I would indefinitely not play First Fridays.

It's an interesting problem, one I seem to get myself into far too often. I want to do all of these things for the community and for other musicians, but also want to keep playing out myself.

I've also toyed with the idea of someday having a house concert venue. Again, that would likely limit how often I could play.

Maybe there are other platforms that enable organizing, exposing, and playing. I don't know. ustream "festivals" seem to cater to that, but they're not in front of a live audience...

There's got to be some solution that I just haven't thought up. Anyone in a similar position or have any insight?

First Fridays In The Swinging Bridge

As you may know, I'm involved with organizing First Fridays at Messiah. It's pretty much just me running the show.

My basic idea was that there needed to be a larger music community within the kids at Messiah. Since I have a ton of equipment, I just decided to go out and buy some lights and, in that, be able to throw little DIY First Friday events.

Back in September there were maybe like 10-20 people throughout the night  ...including musicians. Last month, February, we had around 40 at once with at least 70 throughout the night. This was an attentive audience, standing or sitting on the floor because of a lack of seating. It was great.

I had asked a friend of mine to write up an article about it in the school paper, The Swinging Bridge, to further publicize the event. I ended up with a half page article with pictures, including a half page picture of myself on another page. Not bad.

You can check out the article HERE.



*I would like to note that there is a slight change that needs to be made to the article. The radio station mentioned should be the college station, WVMM, not Philly-based, WXPN.