Rising son

Off to Zaphod's for the last show I photographed this year - or so I'm guessing, considering the silence coming from the folks who are allegedly repairing my camera. This was my first exposure to Noble Son - a.k.a. Gene Greer-Kondusky - who uses looped acoustic guitar and a Boss multi-effects pedal to construct some nicely layered folk pop.







The banter-to-song ratio was a little higher than I usually like, but even when his sound suddenly cut out he kept things engaging.

• Show reminder: The City Above and Acres perform at Zaphod Beeblebrox.

Going, going ...

Damn snow! I'm not sure how folks it kept away from last night's Dog Day show, but it wasn't much fun to ford through en route to Zaphod's. Too bad for folks who decided not to brave the weather; Dog Day were really excellent, as was the rest of the bill.

First up, The Noble Son - a one-man show with an acoustic guitar, a looping pedal and some well-deployed guitar FX. His banter might benefit from some streamlining, but otherwise the set was really good.



The Murder Plans followed; as before their set was definitely rocking.



Finally Dog Day laid down some very robust indie pop. Some of the guitar tones made me think of The Cure, but without the affected singing.



And now onto other business: Jeff Martin of Harshey e-mailed me (and a bunch of other folks) last week to say that Harshey is no more. They're playing one last show, and then going off to their other bands: Garaga, The Allrights, four-stroke, elbeejay and so on. Here they are at Mavericks in June 2006.



They'll take their last bow (until the reunion) at Zaphod's, Dec. 20. with The Vanity of Human Wishes.



Speaking of the Allrights - shown above playing at Cafe DeKcuf in April - they're playing tonight at Zaphod's with Cardiff combo Los Campesinos.