Jack Oblivian

Not only did all the Memphis bands I wanted to see play in NY the same week (which was also the week of my birthday), former Oblivians/Compulsive Gamblers bandmates Greg Cartwright and Jack Oblivian played Southpaw in Park Slope within two nights of eachother. I was at the Reigning Sound Show on Friday as well as the Jack O show on Sunday.

The Reigning Sound show was a Rock and Roll show for the ages. Sold out crowd, sweaty fans singing along to every word, a 27 song setlist, and beer flying everywhere. Instead of leaving the stage and coming back for the encore, Greg just told the crowd “I don’t feel the need to leave the stage and come back so if you want more, we’ll play more. They closed the show with ‘Drowning’ from “Too Much Guitar” and the Glass Sun’s ‘Stick Up For Me’ and no one left disappointed.

The Jack Oblivian show on Sunday night had a completely different feel. It reminded me more than anything else of being at Juke Joints and Soul Clubs in Mississippi and Memphis, where everyone’s drunker than they ought to be and there’s a looseness to the music and the crowd, that makes the show feel like a house party. Besides knowing all the musicians personally, there were a lot of familiar Memphis faces in the crowd. The crowd was small during the first part of John Paul Keith’s set, but filled in nicely towards the end. By the middle of Jack’s set, it was a solid turn out for a Sunday. Jack called up a couple of folks to play tambourine and dance on stage during their “Disco number,” and called me up to sing back up on ‘Black boots.’ It was definitely dark enough that you might even think you were at the Hi-Tone. It takes a lot to give me that feeling in NYC.

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