Saturday night I went to The Laughing Goat coffee house to hear Down With Naked. It’s a small coffee house on Pearl Street in Boulder between 16th and 17th. It’s small and homey with a nice atmosphere. A nice place to take a date. Unlike Iron Mountain, the Goat is designed for sound, although they could use some speakers in the front room. I could hear the music OK, but speech was somewhat muffled. There were occasional and seriously unpleasant feedback problems. The sound was run by a Goat employee. I can’t say if those two facts are related. Possibly not.
It was pretty crowded when I arrived at about 8:20, with standing room only in the main room. I recommend getting there early if you’re going for the music. The crowd thinned to less than half that by 10pm.
The two bartenders (is that the right term at a coffee house?), Fern and Reaca, both sported mohawks. Fern wore a t-shirt that read, “Reaca did it first.” Reace wore a t-shirt that read, “Fern did it second.” Speaking to Reaca off and on, she seemed very nice. The pinkish-purple hair really didn’t look all that bad. I’d go out with her. And wouldn’t it be fun to take her to church?
The University of Colorado-Boulder is less than half a mile away, so I wasn’t as surprised by the clientele as I would have been in…say…Thornton or Aurora. They seemed to place a significant amount of pride in a complex sort of simplicity. Most of the girls wore their hair straight, in pig tails, or short and ragged, all probably very expensively styled even if I couldn’t tell. They wore either blue jeans or skirts that brushed the floor. I think I really like that look. Too bad it’s just a fad.
The men wore hats. Knitted hats to be precise, and the goofier the better. They also tended to wear their hair long, on average probably longer than the women. No pig tails, though. Just ponytails and dread locks over flannel and thermal. Two buses collided at the edge of the Rockies: “Hey! You got your rasta in my grunge!” “No, you got your grunge on my rasta!”
There were some older men there, too. They looked like professor types trying to be young and hip. I guess this would be where I whistle and look innocent?
Apparently something happened to the band’s bass player, so the individual members took turns playing and singing solo, which wasn’t half bad. Duo, in the case of Jon Sousa and Michael Reshetnik. (They’re regular players every sunday night at Conor’O'Neils Irish Pub.) It made for a nice variety and a much more intimate experience. It’s just as well, since I doubt there would have been room on stage for a full band. They are all talented and enjoyable, but Tierney Kathleen and the Sousa/Reshetnik duet were definitely my favorites. Jon with his banjo is a blast to watch. He so obviously loves what he does, and he’s very good at it. Jon and Jenna will be playing at the Laughing Goat again on February 8th, and Jon will be back yet again this Thursday, January 25th, with Celtic fiddler Jessie Burns.
You can listen to some of Jon’s and the band’s music at these web sites:
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