Musical Doubleheader – Damien’s Hall of Horrors, and a Jeter Who Delivers the Winning Run

Friday night was a musical endurance marathon, featuring an early Damien Rice show at DAR Constitution Hall followed by a late night Jeter gig at Bistro Europa. I don’t lay claim to being a huge Rice fan, but I really enjoyed his album “O”. Accompanied by the lovely Michelle, I was unpleasantly shocked to discover that Damien was either sick or suffering from a case of strained vocal chords. He struggled mightily to hit those delicate high notes that are a hallmark of several of his songs, notably “Amie” and “Cannonball”. When he didn’t try to muscle through or dance around the high notes, he sounded fine. The lower range of his husky tenor was largely unaffected by whatever was wrong with him, as was evidenced by the couple of songs that he sang in a lower key to compensate. And maybe I’m just getting old, but I could swear his sound engineer was trying to emulate a Spinal Tap gig. I was just behind the mid-point of the orchestra section, and I was thankful I wasn’t closer.

The second part of our musical double feature took us to lovely Old Town Alexandria and Bistro Europa for a show by Jeffro’s Jeter. Although I didn’t hang out for the entire set, I did manage to catch most of the band’s first and second (of three) sets. A cover of the Stones’ “Sympathy for the Devil” showcased that the band isn’t a one-trick pony, with lead vocalist Jeff and drummer Andy trading out vocal duties. The original track “Lay Down” continues to mature with repeated performances, blending the band’s No Depression sound with the song’s uptempo, Matchbox 20 feel. Other highlights included a rendition of “The Gambler” that channeled a bit of the Ramones and a fuzzy, feedback-laden version of “Crossroads”.  The band’s cover of Radiohead’s “Fake Plastic Trees” invited favorable comparisons to David Bazan’s excellent rendition of “Let Down” in his set in support of Ben Gibbard.  What I wouldn’t give to see Jeter cover “Let Down”, or any of the tracks from OK Computer for that matter.