I look at the date of my last post, and clearly I've been taking an unofficial vacation from the site. Lots of stuff to do, both pleasant and less so, but before it gets too far in my rear-view mirror, I wanted to be sure to talk about and post some photos and videos from last weekend's concert by Randy Kaplan here at Church of the Beatitudes in Phoenix.
One of the first songs Randy led off with was a cover of Elizabeth Cotten's classic "Frieght Train"...
Beforehand, I wondered about the size of the crowd, seeing as the show was going to be held the Saturday after Christmas and in the midst of Hanukkah. But a healthy crowd showed up, filling a good part of the room. (Not quite as big as his Symphony Space show earlier in the month, but, hey, NYC's a wee bit bigger...) Even better, the kids were really into it, interacting with Kaplan.
Which was really important, because Kaplan's really good at telling stories with his songs, and those stories go over much better when the crowd participates, such as on "Mosquito Song."
The kids there had lots of fun, but I was also pleased in that I got a lot of really nice compliments about the show from adults with no kids. Randy was great to talk to (more on that next week), and I'm hopeful that this isn't the last time we see him in the Phoenix area...
(I feel a little bad that I only got tracks off of Five Cent Piece, with none from Loquat Rooftop. Oh well -- there's the excuse for Randy to come back to town.)
