Another new discovery for me at Northern Soul
June 17, 2010: At Northern Soul (557 First St, Hoboken), I finally got to meet a Facebook friend in person. Virginia Kamenitzer is a photographer who also runs the Paul Vincent Gallery in Hoboken.
In typical Facebook fashion, her name came up in that sometimes random list of friend suggestions. After checking out her profile, I realized that she knew a lot of the same folks I knew and she was a talented artist. So a request was sent. Little did I know, she was also an amazing singer. I would find that out quickly.
A very powerful, bluesy voice came out of this tiny creature. The band consisted of Virginia’s brother Ed Kamenitzer on guitar/backing vocals with Tim Dempsey on guitar and Dave Deriso on percussion. The songs were a folk, country, indie rock mix with amazing harmonies and hooks.
Northern Soul caters to mostly acoustic music, but it can certainly still rock. The band churned and burned. Virginia belted. The crowd loved it.
During the set, Virginia had said that the band had no name. This posed a problem for me as a writer. What would I call them? The next day, Virginia emailed me and said that, since they had once been in a band called The Radio Galaxy—and they had played some of those old songs—it could be called a reunion.
A surprising fact revealed in her email was they had just played together about an hour before the set to knock the dust off. Honestly, there wasn’t anything dusty about the sound. They were tight and I was very impressed.
You can still check out The Radio Galaxy on MySpace
See Also:
The Radio Galaxy
Northern Soul
