Welcome, Please Play Saw

"For those of you that I don't know, I'm Liza. There, that's done."

So began the triple bill at the Camel tonight and the ruby-throated Liza Kate kicked things off. As many times as I've heard her, I continue to enjoy each time as if it were the first. I watched as a couple who had recently moved down from NYC fell under her spell. I watched other musicians studying her. She really is a local treasure.

Next up was Durham's Midtown Dickens, a three piece who combined folk, punk and even bluegrass. One of the highlights of their stellar set was seeing the saw being played. As Jonathan Vassar later pointed out in a nod to seeing such a feat, "Playing saw is hard...and it hurts!" For what it's worth, hearing saw is fascinating and doesn't hurt a bit.

The band's collection of instruments (recorder? melodica?) and their punk energy were a terrific combination, as were the beautifully harmonic voices. They hope to be back soon and we 'd be lucky to have them here again.

Jonathan Vassar and the Speckled Bird, minus Chris Edwards and his mandolin who were apparently off in Nashville, didn't even bother setting up on stage. Instead they played in between the stage and the front row, making for a very intimate set. It was appropriate, too, because tonight was their next-to-last show until the end of the year.

The band did their part to represent RVA after Midtown Dickens' impressive turn on the saw with Antonia's vox saw. Not to point out the obvious, but it's not every Saturday night you hear both saw playing and vox saw. I know I considered myself fortunate.

I'd made plans to meet a new music-loving friend for the show and he was as impressed as I was. He was funny, too; since our first meeting, he'd found out that several of his friends read my blog. Apparently he didn't get very far in his description of me before they guessed who he was talking about. I wasn't surprised, but he seemed to be. This is, after all, a small town.

Now that he knows who I am, he realizes we've been at a lot of the same shows. But as I pointed out to Antonia tonight when she told someone, "Karen does everything," the truth is that I really only do the good things. I'm not interested in doing everything. Imagine the blog hate that would inspire.