Passenger + Ruut in Annapolis with Andy! (8/3/08)

Ok, so while you are all losing sleep trying to decide which votes to cast on the current round of the BOTB (see previous post's first section), I'll tell you a little story.

Last night, Andy and I went to Annapolis, where I lived when I was in 5th and 6th grades. We were going there to see a band called Passenger. Passenger are from the UK. Andy tells me that they're from Brighton and after a little confusion involving a perceived mispronunciation of the word "Britain", I understand that he means a specific place in the UK. But everyone isn't from Brighton, because the lead singer said the lead guitarist is Irish. Which I suppose doesn't mean he isn't from Brighton. And I'm rambling.


So anyways, after almost making it to the club and finding that the very street we're looking for is blocked off for some reason, and then realizing that two pre-driving years of residence don't make for a very good mental layout of a town, we found parking and made our way to the Ram's Head Tavern. This place is far bigger than it looks and it has lots and lots of routes to get from point A to point B. Only our point B seems to not be there. What we didn't realize is that the Tavern had a seperate part of it that was a stage area. So then we waited around for the doors to open. Andy was on the list. It was so cool. Except for the ticket guy immediately said "Um, there is no guest list." After talking to the aforementioned Irish/Brightish lead guitar player and Passenger's manager, we were in and sitting. I had a Diet Coke and Andy had a Yuengling. Is this too detailed? (We were at table 304.)



The first act was Ruut, a local. She played piano and was backed by cello and electric guitar. She was absolutely gorgeous and then she started singing and it didn't even matter. She has, in my opinion, a very distinct voice and the band's sound had sort of a soulful country folky sound. You know that Ben Folds Five song "Lullaby"?

Ben Folds Five - Lullaby from The Unauthorized Biography of Reinhold Messner

You do? Ok, so I kept thinking of that during their set. It was absolutely breathtaking and I bought the ep, which you can also purchase at iTunes, and she signed it for me and I was all flustered and speechless like I always am in the presence of great talent.


Here are two songs that they played that I really loved

Ruut - Nothing is Right from Ruut EP
Ruut - Sweetest Thing from Ruut EP

And then Passenger came on. Andy gives a really great description of the show (with a lot less rambling) here. When they were playing, I felt like I was a part of the beginning of something. Whenever I'm reading people's blogs and they're like "Yeah, I was at the first Smiths show" (I think that was JC, but I could be mistaken. Maybe Dirk? Same difference, really ;-)), I'm always envious and want to know what that feels like. And I really felt like that last night. Passenger are so passionate about what they do and Mike (lead singer) has a great voice. They played songs I knew of their album Wicked Man's Rest which Andy gave me for Christmas. The US version is in stores tomorrow. You can get it at amazon. And they also played other songs that were just fantastic. I think my favorite was The Stupidest Song which Mike played as an encore. Despite the name, it's freakin' brilliant.
Here were two highlights:


Passenger - Walk You Home aka Night Vision Binoculars (UK title changed for US release) from Wicked Man's Rest
Passenger - Stray Dog from Wicked Man's Rest

It was a great night.