barry burton

the Album Leaf, the Bottletree

So Tuesday night I had the distinct pleasure of being in the right city at the right time for a good show. Finally. At long last I also made it to Bottletree, of which Brett and Hava inform me is progressing nicely towards being really open. They supposedly have one last inspection before opening their kitchen. Their menu looks really good… I think pretty much all vegetarian fare to boot.

A band called the Lymbyc System opened — as far as opening bands go, they were quite good. A sort of similar sound to the Album Leaf, and yet not exactly. It was just two guys on stage, and while the music they made together was impressive, it did seem that the sound lacked a bit of richness, or maybe could have just felt more organic, if their numbers were greater.

The Album Leaf of course headlined. They (he) was joined by three guys on stage to produce really good sounding live music. Being unaware of real talent as I am, I was really impressed. The show included video projected onto the wall behind the band (and I guess onto the band members themselves, as well). It’s sort of like the new, cheaper light show. One interesting note — the guy, Jimmy Lavalle, was really the only person on stage to speak, and he didn’t speak much. However, several times in between songs he said things like “wow, this is cool” and “this is really cool” and “you guys have got a cool thing going on here”. Only he didn’t say it the typical hyper enthused, just trying to get the crowd going tone. It was more quiet, more honest, seemingly brought forth more from pleasant surprise than from premeditation. I’m really not sure what he meant, if anything, but interesting it was.

We are going to see the 3D Night Before Christmas (which I’ve never seen before in any dimensions) tomorrow night so any interested Birminghamites give me a call.