Nathan Down Experience at PG-Rated Reverb
So I wasn’t expecting to spend tonight at a show, I mean, come on. It’s a school night. Then again, I didn’t have to be at work until late because there would be no power for a large majority of the morning, and I spend too much time on Facebook as it is, and found a message from Nathan Down saying he was just thrown into a show at the Reverb. Now, seeing as how I haven’t seen Mikey S perform in a while, and I haven’t seen him perform in this particular group, I thought why the hell not, I would already be downtown, and was pretty sure I could wrangle a dSLR from someone before showing up.
Two things.
When a set is announced at 5:05pm and is going to be happening at 8:30, it is extremely rare that you will be able to find everyone you need. I showed up around 9pm to meet and greet Mikey and was haphazardly introduced to “the gang” and to find out that Mikey would not be performing, as no one could find the band’s drummer, so Nathan would be performing solo.
When a venue has its liquor license pulled the night before the night of a performance, generally you will not have heavy crowds coming out to see the bands. I felt the wind whistling through my hair, or something equally poetic. I found it just a little bit hilarious, but found it absolutely appalling that the venue was now charging $3.75 for a 500mL of water.
I need to stop being so long winded.
So, Nathan was first to go on stage. And I really had no idea what to expect. I’d never listened to the sound clips or watched video clips online. I was expecting a guy and a guitar, in some nice sort of soothing type of mellow music, as he looked like a nice soothing mellow kind of guy.
Blown away, would be one way to put it. I did not expect the power in Nathan’s vocals, his voice, and just how he performs. I realize now that he would have made more sense with a band, since everything he did seemed just a little overpowering for a one-man show. But he had the skills, and everything sounded great.
Everything looked great too. Early on in the set someone in the crew yelled out at him to take his shirt off, and he made a comment about it being well known that he’s very shy. Now, I was beginning to recall many photos of Nathan Down sans shirt, so I was confused by all these comments. However when it was suddenly proclaimed that “It’s too hot in here!” I was now seeing a man with no shirt on strap a guitar around his shoulders. And the show went on.
I definitely enjoyed the show, even with the lack of alcohol, and lack of… crowd. I definitely felt bad for every artist that was scheduled to be there, because it’s honestly quite painful to sit at a venue with nothing to drink. Mikey promises to let me know of the next Nathan Down show that will happen, and I am looking forward to it!
