Empyrean’s Farewell Party Night 1 Thursday, January 13th
Featuring: Table Top Joe, Greg Beumer, Joel Howard, Thomas Bechard, Spokane Poetry Slam, Dead Serious Lovers, and Monuments
When we arrived at the Empyrean a little before six the chairs were almost full. By 7:30pm there wasn’t even room to stand with people of all ages even a baby in the room. It was a night full of music and poetry and a night to catch up with our friends from the Empyrean.
There were four bands and singer songwriters I hadn’t seen before who played tonight; Table Top Joe, Greg Beumer, Thomas Bechard, and Monuments. Lovely enough Greg Beumer is Rhea’s dad, Thomas we have run into at various shows (but were formally introduced tonight), and the drummer in Monuments was Matt Bogue. Faces we knew just no idea of their hidden musical talents.
Table Top Joe got the evening rolling, with Greg Beumer joining him on his first song. His sister sang with him on one song, and his brother with him on a few. Table Top Joe played for us new songs and old songs, even a song called “Mechanical Trees” which he played at his first (and now last) Empyrean show.
Greg Beumer played after Table Top Joe and his warm rustically sweet vocals, acoustic guitar, and harmonica added musical color to the room. He is a musical juggler too, it is so cool when you see people play the guitar and the harmonica at the same time. That is some serious multitasking! He added a big thanks to “…Michelle and Chirsy for all the fun times, great memories, and all the work you put into this place.” Greg also played a song about his favorite friend Leroy with a Terradactyl on her neck. It was sweet, and I didn’t even know I knew Leroy until after his set! At the very end he said his hands had warmed up enough and he blew us all away with some seriously fast picking, that I thought just maybe I saw smoke coming from his acoustic guitar! I am glad to have talked to Greg and to be able to see him play on such an important night!
Joel Howard even after running sound all night got up on stage with his mandolin and played a few songs for us. It was also too bad kids were talking a lot during his set because he is a really talented musician in Spokane. But, regardless of the rude audience he stuck with it and played his songs. I LOVE that he played the mandolin, so distinct!
The funny thing with Thomas Bechard was I have totally run into him a handful of times and did the whole smile thing, but I don’t think we were ever introduced. So it was funny to see him up on stage! HE KNOCKED MY SOCKS OFF! I told Matt, he sounds just like John Mayer and later in the night Thomas brought up that he was going to play a cover song. He gave us two options one being John Mayer and of course I yelled John Mayer; which he ended up playing “Daughters.” I told him it was a good thing he sounded like John Mayer. John Mayer regardless… Thomas Bechard has some gorgeous vocals! He told the crowd “…Michelle and Chrisy spent a lot of time, sweat, tears & money into this place, the best thing we can do is give it a proper goodbye.” I couldn’t agree more and I think we accomplished that on Night 1.
Mark Anderson did a fantastic job rallying the Spokane Poetry Slam! He was funny and organized! So many kids signed up that at first there was an open mic, then 8 people competed in the Poetry Slam! We heard Jill, Terry, Nick, Madison, Zac, Tyler, Daniel, and Molly who were all judged by five judges in the crowd picked that night (I am sorry if I butchered the spellings of any names.) Molly and Zac got the highest scores therefore they got to read an original piece again and Zac was picked as the overall champ. Which was way cool because Zac actually won the first Empyrean Spokane Poetry Slam and now he won the last Empyrean Spokane Poetry Slam; it was very fitting! I loved the poetry from everyone! It was really cool to see a poetry slam, I want to check one out again!
Dead Serious Lovers won my heart over at the end of the night. Henry and Vaughn sound so perfectly dark and stunning! Their new album has been on playing on my iPod quite often so to be able to hear songs like “Army of Transparent Bodies” live (which is my jam) was pretty heavenly! I am begging them to play more shows, because I do believe they are one of Spokane’s best bands. I am also glad they played the Empyrean Farewell because I can’t count how many times I have seen them play there.
Cyrus Fell Down is actually playing Friday night, so Monuments was the next and the final band of the night. This three piece with no live vocals was a deep sea dive of experimental rock. I really liked it and they had great chemistry. It was heavy in sound and slightly dark but stood out with really clean shredding. I am kind of disappointed in myself for not seeing this band before. I hope I get to see more of their name on show flyers. It was a great way to close out the first night, with a bang and high energy.
I would like to wrap up night one with this quote from Henry (which was directed to Matt) about Hallelujah Soul Explosion tomorrow night “…it’s going to blow your balls off, bring some diapers.”
We hope to see you there.
Photos courtesy of Matt Auclair.
two guitars, bass guitar, drums, steel guitar, keys and even a little accordion! After two or three songs everyone migrated from the bar to front of the house where unfortunately you couldn’t bring your drinks. Ben was really upset about that because that meant no one could buy him a shot. I would be upset too.
