Last night Michele and I went to see Steve Burns play. With cups of 7-Eleven coffee we waited in line outside for the doors to open and the opening acts.

Once inside, I went to the bar to get a couple drinks. I look to the right and sure enough, there was Steve sitting at the bar drinking a Bud talking to some hot blonde woman. He had cut his hair very short and was wearing glasses. I kept thinking he looked very much like Cory Doctorow.

There were a couple of opening acts that were OK, but we spent some of their acts killing time. Michele had brought a book and was reading. I was chatting in IRC over my uber-phone.

Around 11:30PM, Steve hit the stage started getting the show set up. There was a large screen behind him, several video cameras, and a ton of electronics.

There couldn't have been more than 40 people in the bar and as he got started, he told the crowd to move closer. He pointed to the floor in front of him and said, "This is where the Rock happens. Come closer to the Rock." Very Jack Blackish...

And with that, Steve began to rock. The video screen started rolling. In fact, video was running throughout the show. The screen showed different things. Sometimes it was video from the various cameras in the room. Sometimes it was specific video that went along with the song and sometimes it was just a funny snippet that played during a break in the music.

I had listened to his music before and I enjoyed the show. Like many times in the past, I find most shows overdo the feedback and drown the vocals in the guitars. I sang along with several of the songs and had a good time.

The only drawback was that Steve was concerned that the video was working right, so he kept checking the screen and the various monitors. Kinda distracting. A few parts of the video show were neat. At one point the projector pointed at his body and you could see the video play in his chest. In the final song, Mighty Little Man, the video of his friend Gabe dancing was great.

Here you can see a short snippet of Steve playing that I recorded on my phone, for no other reason than I can record video on my phone. Steve plays Mighty Little Man. (You'll need the Divx coded to see it. It's only 9 seconds long so don't fret if you can't watch it.)

Steve's next album will be interesting and it will be fun to see how he grows as a performer. He's got a lot to learn, but he does have more talent than lots of the other bands playing these days.

Posted by michael at July 25, 2004 11:32 PM