Rhapsody Original New Music event

11/16/2006 - The Independent, San Francisco, CA
My very new friend TK threw a party for original (somewhat local) acts featured on Rhapsody, sponsored by Hyundai.(?) Huh... go figure. It was a private event and invite only with a good crowd, but not the typical fan cram. A bit less crowded than normal and space on the dance floor front stage for the camera crew.

Etienne De Rocher opened up the night with a compelling set, most of which I missed, but heard about later. I've really been spinning Etienne a lot lately. Maybe a little too much. Proud that he's a Berkeley cat and hope that our paths will cross eventually in a musical fashion someday. He spent 5 years recording his feature album on label Fog City Records in the Bay Area, and it shows. He even turned down a deal with Capital records after some dispute over the potential contract. His appearances seem sparse, but his presence is known. His music is gaining recognition - so check him out. I regret missing the first part of his set when he was the main reason for attending!

Also there was Recliner which turned out to be your straight up punk/pop/rock band. It was not my style and even so it seemed a bit hard to swallow while they continued wacker-ing away at their bar chords. I was somewhat confused as to why Rhapsody would book a band like this, but hell I'm not even quite sure how the whole thing came about in the first place? What was the selection process and how did they come up with these 4 bands? I digress...

Apollo Sunshine definitely rocked me hard! I really liked this band actually. I'd heard they were an awesome group live, though not quite what I expected from hearing their recent album release, Katonah. But they were all very (multi-)talented musicians with wide reaching vocals and even wider reaching creative minds stretching the limits of their music. Great performers with great stage presence and energy.

For the headliner, they brought in Joseph Arthur. I sorely missed this part of the show as well. :-( Overall, I was looking forward to a somewhat more musically-gratifying night, but very fun nonetheless. I also was a bit confusd because the line-up on the JamBase listing was not correct with what I heard the line-up was as well as what it actually was! If we'd known Etienne was first, we undoubtedly would not have been late. I really like events like this and Ropeadope's New Music Seminar that pop up once in a while. It's a good mix.