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Sunday night I went to see Tara Jane ONeil and Jana Hunter at Gallery 1412. TJO is an old favorite, and I've made sure to catch each of her visits to Seattle in the past three years. Jana Hunter however was unknown to me.
I'd never heard of Gallery 1412 before - their events don't appear in any of the music calendars as far as I know - and I was surprised to learn its location is 18th Avenue and Union Street, across from the T.T. Minor Elementary School. It proved to be an empty retail space being rented and run as a music venue by a small collective. When asked, the person managing the venue this evening said that they've been holding events in this location for a couple years. It's not a bad space, the sound was okay, but it's very bare-bones and could stand to be made a little more welcoming, perhaps with some art exhibits on the walls. They did have folding chairs for the audience, though, which was nice.
Tara Jane ONeil played a solo set, just her with her guitar and effects pedals, although she did enlist audience help on percussion (shakers and tambourines) for her last song. TJO explores an odd corner of music between folk and indie rock, but on the art/experimental/underground side, rather than the punk side as Ani DiFranco for example. Thus, her set was a fairly even mix of artsy instrumentals and folk/indie-rock songs with vocals. She joked at one point that she felt like she was just standing on her back porch and doodling on her guitar, and asked if the audience would mind if that's just what she did, though she saved that for the extended improvisational ending to her last song. As always, the set felt too short; I'd like to see her headline a show and play for an hour or more. But as long as she keeps coming back to Seattle to do shows, I'll be happy just to see her.
Jana Hunter is a guitarist, and appeared with an additional guitarist for most of her set, plus a drummer and TJO with added percussion for about half the set. She turned out to be similar to TJO, in that her songs varied between arty guitar instrumentals making use of live sampled loops, and folksy songs with vocals. However, Hunter sounded more "cowboy/western" folk to me, particularly in her singing style, and some of her material was just plain folk music, unlike TJO's usual blend. I found that I was less interested in the more overtly folk songs, as the style doesn't strongly appeal to me, but then the songs with the added players were closer to straight-up rock, so there was a balance. Although I was not won over as a new fan, I did enjoy her set overall.
I'd never heard of Gallery 1412 before - their events don't appear in any of the music calendars as far as I know - and I was surprised to learn its location is 18th Avenue and Union Street, across from the T.T. Minor Elementary School. It proved to be an empty retail space being rented and run as a music venue by a small collective. When asked, the person managing the venue this evening said that they've been holding events in this location for a couple years. It's not a bad space, the sound was okay, but it's very bare-bones and could stand to be made a little more welcoming, perhaps with some art exhibits on the walls. They did have folding chairs for the audience, though, which was nice.
Tara Jane ONeil played a solo set, just her with her guitar and effects pedals, although she did enlist audience help on percussion (shakers and tambourines) for her last song. TJO explores an odd corner of music between folk and indie rock, but on the art/experimental/underground side, rather than the punk side as Ani DiFranco for example. Thus, her set was a fairly even mix of artsy instrumentals and folk/indie-rock songs with vocals. She joked at one point that she felt like she was just standing on her back porch and doodling on her guitar, and asked if the audience would mind if that's just what she did, though she saved that for the extended improvisational ending to her last song. As always, the set felt too short; I'd like to see her headline a show and play for an hour or more. But as long as she keeps coming back to Seattle to do shows, I'll be happy just to see her.
Jana Hunter is a guitarist, and appeared with an additional guitarist for most of her set, plus a drummer and TJO with added percussion for about half the set. She turned out to be similar to TJO, in that her songs varied between arty guitar instrumentals making use of live sampled loops, and folksy songs with vocals. However, Hunter sounded more "cowboy/western" folk to me, particularly in her singing style, and some of her material was just plain folk music, unlike TJO's usual blend. I found that I was less interested in the more overtly folk songs, as the style doesn't strongly appeal to me, but then the songs with the added players were closer to straight-up rock, so there was a balance. Although I was not won over as a new fan, I did enjoy her set overall.
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