I just think that getting on stage with a computer programmed to sound like a back up band when you are a solo act at a show called Imitation of Loud is totally cheating. That is why I did not get into your music mister second act, it also had a little something to do with your lovely footwork while playing the guitar, the fact that you repeatedly singled me out in the audience and that you resembled a college friend’s psycho ex-boyfriend.

The concept behind Imitation of Loud seems to be that of both creativity and guts. Do you have the guts to go up on stage and play for an audience when normally you are a single entity within the construct of a band and also how are you going to make that work? Honestly my motivation in attending was to see Jon Kaiser from Sparrows do what he had explained on the website as “some cello-tastic covers of your favorite R&B jams as well as some drastic reworking of Sparrows material.” And indeed I was impressed. The word I kept thinking of was primal. He was up there with a bass drum and some cymbals or a tambourine or something rigged up some how along with his cello. The instruments worked together to form a basic earth sound and then he sang. He sang and it was low and gravelly and human. His voice was a moan, a frail human reminding the audience that he too was a part of the music being made on stage. And then it was over and he left the stage as abruptly as he had entered it.

After meekly watching the second performer Joe and I decided that it was time to grab some dinner. I had showed up at the Turf Club after working another eleven hour day and hadn’t had any dinner in-between just a very large coffee which kept me overly chatty and didn’t necessarily help my driving skills in all the snow on the way back to Minneapolis. My driving however was not as bad as the person who nearly crashed into the front of the Turf Club before the show had started. As we approached the Turf there seemed to be a car in the front of the bar. There was an ambulance nearby and a couple of cop cars as well. When we parked we could see more clearly that there was a car facing the Tuf entrance a few feet from the door. The flashing lights looked lovely in the falling snow and I was just glad that they hadn’t plowed all the way through as I had a show to see.