Featuring Austin Donohue and Ben Godwin
I was not planning on going out tonight. I had a plane to catch in the morning and really just wanted to stay in and get some rest. But then I remembered that the latest Folk You showcase at The Goldhawk (936 Park Ave, Hoboken) was featuring two fantastic performers who I had not seen since WE Fest. And since I was going to The Other Sound in Atlanta which was being staged by a WE Fest veteran … well I just couldn’t ignore the coincidence.
First up was Austin Donohue who offered up an array of atmospheric and sonic pleasures thanks to the addition of a laptop to his performance. Though he had recorded some wonderful pieces using an assortment of electronica, his normal live set up is him and a guitar. This new live venture allowed him to bring a bigger sound to his intimate songs. He joked that the only thing missing was the lack of onstage banter with bandmates that you just can’t recreate with a machine.
Goldhawk bartender Kerry and I joked about how cool it would be for someone to program an entire band of laptops. They could joke around, play music and interact with the audience as the human members of the band sat quietly in the corner. Of course eventually the laptops would start to get attitudes, demand drinks and get impossible to work with. They’d become a bunch of computer-chip divas.
Ben Godwin was joined tonight by bassist Tony Maceli. This was a nice showcase for his storybook songs. Songs that alternately moves the listener to joy and tears, at times unexpectedly. To me, his true talent comes in the way he paints a picture and then delivers it with a brilliant intensity. And unlike the last time I saw him play alone, he was able to have the onstage banter with Tony that Austin so longed for. My one moment of heckling came when I pointed this out to Austin as he sat on the sofa enjoying the show.
After the show, I went outside for some air and bar manager Margaret handed me something to read. It was Kerry’s resume and she had asked a bunch of people at the bar to give their opinion. Let me tell you, if I owned a bar and was hiring bartenders, I would hire her in a second after reading this. It started out as t completely normal, professional resume and slowly developed into a series of side-splitting anecdotes about crackheads in bathrooms, silicone breasts and dead bodies in alleyways.
I would later find out that some jackass at the bar tore off her phone number thinking this was an effective way to pick up a hot bartender. What a loser. Anyway, this was just the night I needed to send me off to Atlanta in the right frame of mind. Getting to hang out with friends at a favorite bar of mine listening to great music.
See Also:
Photo Gallery
Austin Donohue
Ben Godwin
Folk You
The Goldhawk
