Shows at Joe's

The Long Forgotten is a bluegrass band FROM FRESNO and they’re pretty good. They came on stage first and played for 30-45 minutes. There’s three of them, and each of them played at least three instruments. Imagine a bluegrass trio, and that’s exactly what they are. They’re good musicians playing fun music and vocally harmonizing. One of them had a Lou Hazel shirt on. I’m pretty sure he was the sound guy for Lou’s show the other night at the Tower Theater Lounge. He also play

Malena Cadiz was up first. She’s got a Joni Mitchell aesthetic, with long, straight hair parted in the middle and draped over her shoulders and a long, flowing, loose fitting dress with a floral print. A dress so long that she has to grab it and raise it up a little bit when walking up straits so that she doesn’t step on it and trip herself. She was all by herself on stage. No band. Just her and an electric guitar (which she is playing finger style ). Like Joni Mitchell. Th

Molly Tuttle was the first act of the night, and this was the third or fourth time I've seen her perform. She still puts on a great show, and is still very talented, both as a singer and even more so as a guitar player, an absolutely incredible guitar player. None of that has changed. What has changed, though, is her sound. The first couple times I saw her, it was with her backing band Golden Highway, and the music they played was almost entirely bluegrass. It was all acousti

I wish I had the music and guitar knowledge and vocabulary to put into words how incredible of a guitar player he is. I just saw Chris Duarte a couple weeks ago, who was mind-blowingly good, but this guy Albert (Alfredo maybe?) is just as good or maybe even a little better. His technical skills are off the chart. He effortlessly changed chord shapes all over the neck and accurately picked strings in every imaginable combination. If I was going to try to describe it what kin

The Lostines are a duo, or maybe a sextet, I’m not exactly sure (I clarified this after the show, the backing band is a rotating cast, but there are five regular members). But there are two ladies with great voices trading off the singing duties. And sometimes harmonizing, which is when they sound best. But honestly, doesn't everyone sound best when they're harmonizing? Either way, they sound great. In addition to trading off lead vocals, they also trade off an acoustic guita

Eurotripp was the first band of the night, and I got there when their set was mostly over. From what I saw, they are a high energy trio that is part pop-punk, part hip hop, part nu metal, and always with a lot of energy. They closed their set with their song Where's Your Head At which I recognized and has tens of millions of streams on spotify. They're fun and high octane. Red Leather was up next. He's a dude wearing a red fringed cowboy hat (or mayge a lamp shade) on his hea