Caleb Travers & the Wooden Kites at the Taproom

Maybe I've never been much of a reviewer because I love bands too much, especially good local ones. It gets mildly redundant to say "it was so good!" over and over.

Well, last night at the Schlafly Taproom was Corey Saathoff, Caleb Travers & the Big City Lights, and the Wooden Kites. I got there too late to see Corey (I am a bad person), but such is life. Caleb played with just Scott Swartz, not the full band (they will be at Union Station for a free show July 17, in case you're interested). This was my first time seeing him, though I've seen his name all over the place. He played a quiet, stripped-down set that I was really glad I got to see. He writes beautiful, sweet songs, and has a rich voice to go with the acoustic guitar. I saw myself listening to his songs on a night-time summer road trip with the windows down, the wind blowing. That kind of thing. He was just a bit cheeky in between songs, too. It made me want to catch his open mic at Atomic Cowboy on Tuesdays, because I think he could probably amuse me in a casual, carefree kind of setting. He did make the comment that if anyone had come alone that night they might want to "end it" after his set because of the level of mellow-ness. A joke, of course, but he has some very haunting songs. I love that though, so if you get a chance, I recommend going to see him. Maybe bring tissues.

The Wooden Kites played next and warned all our eardrums of impending noise. Aw, OK. These guys had a bit of a rough night. Brian's mic kept mysteriously deciding to not work, then work again without any discernible reasoning. The guys kept pounding out the sound though--kudos to them. Everyone helped out by yelling the lyrics when the mic went out. It was a team effort. Even with these problems, the WK were bushels of fun! They play mostly upbeat, fast-moving songs that one could bop around to if so-inclined. It's a little country, a little rock, a little keyboard...but totally rock-out good. They put on an energetic live show, and they have catchy, loud music. I danced, I won't lie. I can't help myself, usually. I hope to see the WK again, soon, and I'll bring friends (their next show is July 4 at the Way Out Club, so be take your jello-molds and bbq and go see them). They have that kind of music that I find it difficult to resist because it is fun -- it doesn't take itself too seriously, it moves, it isn't pretentious. I hope they stick around. I bought their new album, the Orchard, and put it in as soon as I got in my car, so that was a plus. And I'll give it a review posthaste after a few more listens. So congrats guys--they've gotten a lot of good press recently, and it's well deserved.

I need to finally join the twenty-first century and get a digital camera, so I can take pictures of these things.