Show Review: Ryan Cabrera with Keaton Simons and Mike Annuzzi at Red Devil Lounge, 11/20/2013

Ryan Cabrera.  Tonight on a very special episode of Blossom.
Ryan Cabrera. Tonight on a very special episode of Blossom.

Once upon a time (circa 2004), Ryan Cabrera was a new face, introduced to many (most?) by way of his then-girlfriend, Ashlee Simpson via her MTV reality show, The Ashlee Simpson Show. Despite his Muppet hair and whiny voice, Cabrera’s major-label debut, Take it All Away, peaked at #6 on The Billboard 200 chart, fueled largely by hit single “On the Way Down.” Now, nearly a decade later, Ashlee Simpson is long gone, and it’s been six years since Cabrera last released an album. Nonetheless, he’s inexplicably touring with my beloved Keaton Simons (for whom I’d do most anything), and so I had no choice but to subject myself to an evening of his music last week at what turned out to be my farewell show to the soon-to-close Red Devil Lounge. Continue reading “Show Review: Ryan Cabrera with Keaton Simons and Mike Annuzzi at Red Devil Lounge, 11/20/2013”

Show Review: Jay Nash at Red Devil Lounge, 5/11/2012

Don’t you hate it when you’ve totally been looking forward to an event and then when it actually rolls around, something comes up that completely hinders your ability to enjoy it as much as you’d planned to? Sadly, that was my experience Friday night last. The thing I look forward to is, of course, seeing great live music. In this particular case, it was Jay Nash I’d been anticipating seeing again, at the Red Devil Lounge. Jay’s newest EP, Of the Woods, was just released last week, so of course I was also excited to hear the new material.

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Show Review: Nikka Costa with Terraplane Sun at Red Devil Lounge, 2/12/2012

The incomparable Nikka Costa

Why the world still has yet to catch on to what they’ve been missing all these years in Nikka Costa is a mystery to me, and frankly has been for more than a decade now.  That said, though I wish her all the success in the world, I don’t really mind that she has a small-but-dedicated cult following rather than fans to fill arenas, because it allows me opportunities to see her in small venues like the Roxy in LA, the Independent here in SF, and this past weekend, the absolutely tiny Red Devil Lounge.  Better still, I’m finally learning that if Ms. Costa is going to have an opening act, it’ll likely be a musician or band she’s chosen herself, as was the case with last night’s opener, Terraplane Sun. Continue reading “Show Review: Nikka Costa with Terraplane Sun at Red Devil Lounge, 2/12/2012”

Show Review: Jennifer Knapp at Red Devil Lounge, 4/25/10

Jennifer Knapp performing at Club Café in Pittsburgh last month. Photo by Marcia Furman.

After a seven-year hiatus, bestselling Christian singer/songwriter Jennifer Knapp —who always stood apart from her contemporaries in terms of her musical grit and unadorned emotional ferocity; who created some of the most iconic songs of her genre and generation, such as “Undo Me” and “A Little More,”  — came back with two big announcements: (1) she’s returning to music; and (2) she’s a lesbian. Predictably, the latter has eclipsed the former. But Knapp is first and foremost a musician, as she demonstrated last night at Red Devil Lounge (I can only imagine what her horrified conservative fans think about their disgraced idol playing at a San Francisco bar named after Satan, which: bonus!).

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