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| Spring Standards busting through the 4th wall and taking it to the peoples |
Okay, so one of our favorite up-and-coming bands is Brooklyn's Spring Standards. We've been following James, Heather and James (JHJ) since 2010. This is the same trio (+Noah) we hosted last summer at our house.
They are navigating through the new model of the music business, untethered by Corporate demands, making it up as they go with clever ways to crowdfund new albums, self publish and self promote. They work their butts off traveling all over the right half of the US and beyond in their Sprinter, Peggy Sue, connecting with their fans in a multitude of creative ways.
Recently, while on tour opening for Pig Pen Theater, some louse broke into their van while they were enjoying a museum in St. Louis, and stole their cash and backpack of snacks. Fortunately, their gear was untouched, but being independent of label backing, the loss of funds was devastating. Via the power of social media and the community they have forged with their fan base, they were able to recoup their losses by collecting donations during an impromptu online concert via Concert Window.
Good things DO happen to good people.
Faith in humanity restored. Temporarily, anyway.
(They wrote a lovely testimonial here.)
Anywho, they got their coffers back in the black and headed to the Burgh to perform at Mr. Small's on April Fool's Day. I don't usually venture out on my school nights. It's tough enough to wake hours before the butt crack of dawn as it is without purposely slicing my meager slumber in half with a late-night concert, but thankfully they were the openers, so... score one for the Zombie Non-Mom!
Much like with Rhett/Old 97's, there are a great group of friends who show up to support the Standards. Okay, they are the SAME group of friends who gather for the 97's. Ha! Ha! Whatever. They're a blast and it's always fun to hang with them. Added bonus Tuesday night: Geo was on board! Woot!!
I can't say enough about this band. They are such talented multi-instumentalists, songwriters and performers. And they are so, so nice. Every time we see them they get better and better. They have a fantastic rapport with each other on stage, goofing around and playing off of each other. They have a ball up there, and that joy spreads out over the audience.
At one point during their set, they decided to jump into the pit to sing one of their quieter offerings, Crushing Pennies, in an effort to connect with the crowd chattering in the bar area. At first the talking continued, but soon their beautiful vocals grabbed everyone's attention. It was so quiet, you could hear a pin drop. Not even James Cleare's blazing white legs could break the spell cast by their harmonies.
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| those are some pasty white irish gams |
They may not be where they ultimately want to be success wise, but these three talents are on the right path. They're planning another house concert run this summer. We're on the list again. Hopefully that list will be double the size of last year's. These lovely kids keep making strides one gig at a time. I have faith one of these days soon they'll be able to give up their odd jobs for good.
Support live music, y'all. It's good for the soul.
