Shows at Joe's

It was one of those nights where you wander around tower, feeling restless and searching for something with self expression and soul and meaning, and you know when you find it all your worries are going to disappear and for just a little bit you are going to be purely in the moment and connected to energy and frequency of the people and neighborhood around you. Azure and I walked past Lucy's, and no luck, they had a DJ (side note: this is so disappointing and frustrating, br

Dying Suns, a local band, took the stage first. The four man psychedelic rock group released their first album a few years ago. Their style was a little hard to pin down, seemingly shifting from genre to genre, but always guitar forward and everything with a psychedelic twist. Almost every song they played evolved into a good jam, with a lot of layers and different sounds in their songs. Towards the end of their set they did an incredible cover of Old Man by Neil Young, whic

T.H.C. is an old Fresno band that reunited for a one off performance at Fulton 55. The initials stand for their names, Tarik, Hud, and Craig. They are a rock band from the 90s that had quite the following when they were younger, and it was easy to see why. Quite plainly, those boys can play. They had the typical three piece rock band set up, guitar, bass, drums, but at times the bass player would sit down and play the keys instead. And while they were good while he was on key

Monophonics filled Fulton 55 with soul. The group from the Bay came down and put on a wonderful performance in front of an almost packed house. They played soulful, groovy song after soulful, groovy song and left everyone with smiles on their faces. Front and center, was the singer and keyboardist. He sang with emotion and in a higher register, and if he didn't have to be stationary to play the keys I'm positive he would have been dancing all over the stage. As it was, he was

Javier Navarrette brought a bunch of friends together on Christmas Eve on the Veni's patio, and led what I can only describe a church service in the religion of rhythm, with Javier himself as the high priest. A rotating cast of instrumentalists, most of them playing some kind of percussion, joined Javier to baptize us in their metaphorical river of sound. They spoke to each other through their music, asking each other questions about what form the groove would take and which

Caitlin Butts, from Oklahoma, began the evening with a great female country voice. She has a great sense of humor and peppers funny stories in between songs, a lot of which are about someone (probably a former lover/boyfriend or maybe her dad) who is a narcissist. She’s effortlessly charismatic, with humor that shines through into her songs. One moment her sweet as syrup voice is soaring over her guitar and the next she’s cracking jokes in between verses.  When Molly Tuttle t