Show Review: Javier Colon with Reed Waddle at The Uptown Theatre Napa, 3/4/2012

The stage before the show, and before the "no photos" policy was announced (and enforced)

Let’s talk for a minute about NBC’s The Voice. Last April, when it premiered after much hype, I was really excited to check it out. For anyone who isn’t familiar, the premise of the show is that undiscovered musical talents audition for four current musicians, in hopes that their vocals alone will convince one (or more) of them to coach them through the rest of the competition. They call it a “blind” audition because all four coaches (Adam Levine of Maroon 5, Cee-Lo Green, Christina Aguilera, and Blake Shelton) sit with their backs to the stage, unable to see the performer at all. It sounds like a great concept, right? True, I always point out that there’s a little bit of a fallacy here, since it is a TV show, and someone’s doing the casting, so while it’s true that the coaches don’t see who the voice is coming out of before signing on to work with them, it’s not entirely true that how a performer looks isn’t taken into consideration at all.

Anyway, last year it was really fun to watch, because after you get past the fact that almost all of the performers look commercial enough to make it in the industry, you start to get sucked into the untapped talent – in my case, I was especially rooting for Team Adam, as Mr. Levine has a knack for picking the artists I liked the best. In the end, my favorite guy won. His name is Javier Colon, and truth be told, I haven’t heard much about him since he won. So believe me, I was excited to see him when I saw that he was playing the Uptown Theatre in Napa last night. Continue reading “Show Review: Javier Colon with Reed Waddle at The Uptown Theatre Napa, 3/4/2012”

Show Review: Jonny Lang with the Michael Williams Band at the Uptown Theatre Napa, 10/28/2011

Jonny Lang. Genius at work.

Up until last week, it would have shocked me to learn how few people in my life have heard of the young blues guitar genius Jonny Lang. Because I’ve witnessed Jonny’s musical evolution (from 15-year-old phenom to critical darling to gospel musician) since the late 90s, it seems absurd to me that there would be anyone that’s not yet heard of this man. Alas, it’s true: we Jonny Lang fans seem to be much more of a minority than I knew. Happily, this weekend found me among nearly a thousand like-minded individuals at Friday night’s performance at downtown Napa’s tiny Uptown Theatre. Continue reading “Show Review: Jonny Lang with the Michael Williams Band at the Uptown Theatre Napa, 10/28/2011”

Show Review: They Might Be Giants with Oona at The Napa Uptown, 8/21/2010

This is They Might Be Giants with confetti, but not all that much, really. See inside for details.

If I had to give a title to this review, apart from the boring, SEO-friendly titles we always use here, it would be “They Might Be Giants vs. The Napa Uptown Theatre.” I think that the band started the show really loving the beautifully restored theater, but by the end of the performance, I feel like there may have been some antagonism between the two. Was this an actual fight? Or merely a love-fest in disguise? It was a bit hard to tell. Continue reading “Show Review: They Might Be Giants with Oona at The Napa Uptown, 8/21/2010”