Show of the Day: Noah and Abby Gundersen with Zach Fleury at The Big House in Ballard

>> Saturday, January 14, 2012

OK. I am going to do my best to not over sell this. I am going to do my best to not make a bigger deal out of this than I should. But, I am not sure I can help it. Last night, at about 7pm I set out upon the night to see a show, to listen to some music and to have a decent evening. Last night, at 7pm, I had no idea. 

What I saw last night was so much more of an experience than a show. It was not a concert for a concerts sake. It was special. It was real. It was jarring, impactful and flat out defied the definition of music. 

I know that sounds pretty incredulous. But picture this:
And this:
100 music lovers, truly loving music. Musicians truly giving everything. This was not one of those shows at a clinky bar where the music was just the noise trying to penetrat the hum of drunken conversations. This was a show for honest to goodness audiophiles. I have never heard a crowd so quiet, so attentive, so in love with the sounds that were radiating off the stage. I am not sure I have ever experienced anything like it.

Oh, side note, if you ever get a chance to see a show at The Big House in Ballard, you must jump. That room is magic, intimate and incredible. 

But, now on to the music itself. Opening for Noah Gundersen was half-musician half-comedian Zach Fleury, who, to be frank, I had only slightly heard of prior to last night, via the YouTube clips below. These are poached from one of my favorite local music clipparies, Ballad Sessions. And those clips are fantastic and all, but he was even better in person, interacting with the crowd, feeding off of them as he fed them. It was a great introduction to a fella that I am going to make a point of tracking from here on out. Damn impressive sir.
"Paraffin & Down" by Zach Fleury


"Sophie Sleepless" by Zach Fleury


And that was just the start....

I want to preface this by saying that I am a huge fan of Noah Gundersen. I have been for a little while now. I am not going to claim that I was the first on his bandwagon, but I will claim that not alot of people have been singing his praises as loudly as I have lately. However, he was not the star of the show last night. Abby Gundersen stole my heart. Not in the creepy, "I'm a 30 year old fat guy, crushing on the belting beauty" kind of way. Just musically, she simply stole my heart. It took seeing them live to realize, that although Noah is the front man, and deservedly so, Abby is the soul of the group. He writes amazing songs, and can easily bring them to life all on his own, but she makes those same songs stagger, and buckle at the knees.

He can make a crowd rise up, she can make them soar.

They are the perfect pair.

The passion they both played with was unparralled and vibrated throughout the entire building. It was truly an experience that I will not soon forget.
Sadly, video from last night has not yet surfaced, So, I am going to go with some generic, yet amazing videos. However, as soon as the videos do come about (which as you can see in the photo above, there was a full on camera crew, so that is bound to happen), I will update with a new blog. Anyways, enjoy.

"Moss On A Rolling Stone" by Noah & Abby Gundersen


"Avalanche" by Noah & Abby Gundersen (my favorite song, and played at my shouted request!)


"Poor Man's Son" by The Gundersen Family (sadly, it was just Abby and Noah last night, as the rest of the family did not partake, but it was still chillingly spectacular, and a video I cannot wait to see. The "Oh, Family..." lines turned into a giant stomp fest and sing-a-long. Really special.)


3 comments:

Unknown January 14, 2012 at 3:07 PM  

I was there, too, and I couldn't agree with you more. All 100 of us were so incredibly lucky to be able to be a part of it. I took some videos and posted them to youtube. Enjoy :)
http://www.youtube.com/user/lisajourneys?feature=mhee

Warwick/ThisCityRocks January 14, 2012 at 3:10 PM  

Such a beautiful show - you summed it up nicely. We were the ones shooting video last night (sorry I was in your view!), and after pouring over the footage this morning, I CAN'T WAIT to get the edits done. Magical. I'm sure you'll see it through Noah's channels, but it'll be posted on www.thiscityrocks.com soon.

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