This is the first Tuesday @ Tribeca report in a while--I think I mentioned before that Adam and Rob's project is playing there every Tuesday and last night was the first show. It started and ended earlier than the Gloryhound ones on Thursday, for which I was grateful. Scotty was behind the bar, which was nice, along with Dave from Gloryhound (we both did the "well, this is a different perspective!" thing.) And there was what I'd call a decent crowd for a Tuesday in early January. Not as many people as for the show just before Christmas, but on the up side that meant it was a lot easier for me to hear.

Adam and Rob played the second set--the plan is to have a different musician play the first set every week, and then the guys follow them. This week the the special guest was Al Tuck, who often performs with his band No Action (I am ashamed to say I didn't get that one until I heard someone say right out, "Al Tuck and No Action"), and who I've been assured by countless people is a songwriter I need to check out. The best recommendation I've heard for him was not a personal one--at his Symphony Nova Scotia show a couple of years ago, Matt Mays introduced a cover of Tuck's "February Snow" by calling him "the best songwriter that anyone who's ever heard of him has ever heard of," which you have to admit is pretty brilliant. I'd been feeling like an idiot for not having heard him yet (he used to play at Gus's every Sunday afternoon, but I somehow always seemed to be at the barn) so it was nice to have a couple of people who know much more about music than I do confess they were in the same boat.

So the opening set was Al on guitar and lead vocals (mostly), Adam on keys, and Rob on bass. Really nice stuff, although I don't think I would choose it as driving music, both because it was beautifully low-key and dreamy, and also because I have a feeling I'd get thinking about the lyrics and lose my focus. (I can't listen to Stan Rogers and drive, either. No, I don't listen to audiobooks in the car, why do you ask?) I think I have heard someone describe Tuck as sounding a little bit like Tom Waits, or maybe I dreamed it, but that's the best I can come up with. There seemed to be a hint of Waits.

I'm sort of in the process of figuring out which song was which by the lyrics, which are posted on his site but not easily searchable, so there is no set list at this time for Al. I'm definitely going to look up his stuff and may update this entry later if I do match titles to go with the songs. There was a guest vocalist on "February Snow," a guy named Thomas Matheson, who I've pretty much only ever seen as a guest of of another artist but who's probably worth looking up himself. At the very end of the set Al played one song by himself, then remarked that it seemed like a bit of a downer to end the set on and asked the rest of the band, who by now were in the audience, "Did we rehearse 'Brother From Another Mother' the other day?"

Everyone else: "No."
Al: "Oh."
Adam: (getting to his feet) "How many chords does it have?"
Al: "A lot."

In spite of which, they played the song and it sounded just fine to me.

Edited because I now have the set list!
Set List

Buddha

Six Strings

Nine Lives

5-0

February Snow (Thomas Matheson: vocals and guitar)

Big O' Me

I Can't Pretend (Al: solo guitar and vocals)

Brother From Another Mother

After a very short intermission, Rob and Adam took over. The lineup was slightly different from last time, with Mike Farrington (I think I have that right) on bass rather than Serge Samson. Apparently Dale Murray is suffering from "the plague" (don't you hate it when that happens?) so he was unable to attend, but his brother Brian played drums, with Adam on guitar and vocals and Rob on keys.

I'm getting much better at recognizing these tunes and Adam introduced a bunch of them so I have most of the titles.

Set List

Colours Of the World

No Telling When

Maybe

Desperately Dreaming

Walks Away

Sometimes

Lady In the Cold

Can I See You Again

Witch Doctor

Drive (The Cars, a nice blast from the past and a good cover)

The sound was really good--Scotty was all over it--and overall I'd call it a good night. Rob remarked at the end of the set that they hope things would get tighter as they played together more. Which I am sure they will, and that's one of the nice things about going to see a particular band over a period of time: it's fun to hear that kind of thing come together and see where they go.

Anyway: definitely a good use of my Tuesday night, and I was home by one so really I wasn't even out all that late!

Apparently The Attic has but two weeks to live. And here, after that fairly uncomfortable first experience, I had just decided I liked the place when under it goes.

The Attic is part of the big Liquordome complex and apparently it's suffered due to general problems with the Dome (such as the dollar-drink-fueled Christmas Eve brawl, for instance.) I hear rumours that the space will be used to make the Dome itself bigger, which has led to some bitter online commentary along the lines of, "The Dome is out of control, so the obvious solution is to make it even bigger!" Um, yeah, that makes sense.

Also heard online is, it sounds like the bar staff (who were really nice) among others will be out of work. (Although you'd think, if they make the dance club bigger, they'll need staff upstairs, right?)

It's never good when a place that plays live music is replaced by something that doesn't. (Unless the something that doesn't is a tack store or a library, obviously.) The online commenters I've seen say the people who ran the place treated bands well. So now I'm sort of bummed.