Joshua Radin and Schuyler Fisk at the El Mocambo; April 11, 2007

Joshua Radin and Schuyler Fisk at the El Mocambo; April 11, 2007. 8/10

Despite the awful weather and mess up on the merch table this show was great! No opening acts except for Schuyler Fisk who i don't really consider to be an opening act because she's soooo good. I can't help but remember her as Christie in the Baby Sitter's Club, which is not a very good portrayal of her to this day... Her show was impressive, she got up on stage probably at around 8:30 (Doors were at 8) and she just started to play. Modest intro, i dug it. After the first track she introduced herself. Her songs were super energetic despite her style of voice, which in most songs sounds identical. I hadn't heard her solo stuff, but watching her show convinced me to buy her EP for ten bucks which was only avaliable through this tour. Most of her songs were typical songs of love, nothing new, but she loved what she was doing and it showed.The set changes were super quick, Joshua Radin came on in next to no time, i didn't even get a chance to grab Schuyler's EP and a bottle of water--by the time i returned he had already played two songs! He opened with single-- "Star Mile", which was featured on The Last Kiss Soundtrack, done up by no other than Zach Braff. Joshua Radin, much like Maria Taylor and Zero 7 gained much fan base strictly from soundtracks and movie music. I was super excited to hear him play "Everything'll Be Alright". It was nice that he gave a tiny summary of some songs and what motivated him to write them. He explained the whole-- Will's Lullaby--which on the album was written in brackets after the title. He said that he wrote this at a bad time in a relationship while he was taking care of a friends kid and hearing about hurricane Katrina. This explains the song perfectly and made me appricate it more for that matter.He featured most of the songs, if not all from his album--"We Were Here"--released in 2006. It was great, everything the sound, the quality and the presence, however has nothing to do with the live presentation but the type of music he makes. It simply lacks variation and seems to be slightly too consistant, as a writer on his own his sound is too similar, however on the tunes he writes with others, like "Paperweight" for example--his style is accentuated.They played "Paperweight", and it was lovely. Played it perfectly. Both he and Schuyler added to each other's sets by providing harmonies, vocal blending and simply a girl-guy variation. Their sound was great, they know how to differentiate a lead vocal from a backing vocal, which tehy differentiated perfectly between each other's sets.I think what revitalized Joshua Radin's set was the use of a cello player and a stand up bass instead of a electric bass. It exemplified both musicianship and brought life to Radin's too consistent sound.

Download: "Paperweight" and "Everything'll Be Alright (Will's Lullaby)"

April 12, 2007