Weekday posts seem to be difficult, so this is a make-up post from this past Tuesday, September 9th. Justin has a Sirius radio subscription, so recently we’ve been listening to a lot of their Alt Nation channel. There, we discovered the song Riptide by Vance Joy, an Australian singer/songwriter. When Justin got an email about a private show in NYC for Sirius listeners, we requested tickets and got them. Tuesday we headed into the city and first found a bite to eat. The show was happening at the Studio at Webster Hall, and since we only had about an hour we looked around a one block radius. We eliminated the Village Pour House as an option – we wanted something a little bit fancier. The Smith across 3rd Avenue had a 30 minute wait. We settled on Bodhi Tree on 3rd Avenue and 10th Street.
To cut to the chase, they get a 3 star rating on the Baconboozer (extremely sophosticated) rating system: it was a solidly good meal with nothing really out of the ordinary or special to report. Keep in mind, we ate quickly and ordered fairly lightly, so maybe that took away from the experience a bit. I was ravenous and didn’t even take the time to photograph the plates before devouring. We ordered the duck roll appetizer (very greasy but very tasty), the beef salad (surprisingly spicy which I wasn’t expecting or necessarily wanting, but the beef was good), and the panang curry with beef (my favorite part of the meal – cocounuty and delicious). I ordered a lychee martini (solid) and Justin did the Palm beer, which I really liked. The service was mediocre – nothing bad but nothing great. It was a smallish space but decorated nicely and comfy feeling. All in all it was good.
So then we headed to Webster Hall for the show…
Other than his one hit – Riptide – that I hear all the time on Alt Nation, I knew none of Vance Joy’s music and had no idea of what to expect from this kind of private show. It turned out to be pretty cool. Justin gave his name and we got passes to head straight in – totally free. We headed to the bar and grabbed a few Brooklyn Lagers and found a spot in front of the stage. It was a super small venue with a very intimate feel once he came on stage… I swear he and I made eye contact at least twice. I’d guess there were a couple hundred people in the room at most. He performed a bunch of songs from his new album, Dream Your Life Away. For not knowing any of the songs, I was surprised to still really, really love the music. It’s folky and indie and soulful. And he performed really well, sounding as good as on the radio, if not better.
Some of my favorite songs, other than the super catchy Riptide, were Georgia, From Afar, Mess is Mine, Best that I Can, Wasted Time, and Red Eye. It was a quick taste of the album, not more than 45 minutes of performance, but well worth the trip into the city.
So dinner was good and the show was great – I’m looking forward to more music from this guy.