Check It Out Music:The Toy Garden, Paper Mache, and Rocky Votola
The Toy Garden, Paper Mache, and Rocky Votolato
Tuesday, August 18th at the Empyrean Coffee House
I had a huge grin on my face for tonight was the fullest I have seen any local venue in a while. The Empyrean was packed full of bodies all to see The Toy Garden, Paper Mache, and Rocky Votolato. The Toy Garden opened the show up as a three piece with no bass player. It was a good twist, it didn't sound bad at all. It was cool to see Will play a show since we always see him running sound.
I liked how you could enter to win one of their CD's too, which I have. Matt and I rock out to it frequently, we can sing loudly in the car and no one can hear us. They're a mellower rockin' band with Deftones vocals and a hit of electronic music. You can't go wrong with The Toy Garden.
Paper Mache was just Chelsea Seth tonight, even though he kept referring to "our" as if he had the band with him. "Someone's getting paid to watch Entourage," he said after explaining how if you buy a shirt the money is split even though it is just him playing. He told us if you want to be in a band play bass or drums, you always have to be there if you're the singer. I liked seeing Chelsea Seth by himself with his electric acoustic looking guitar, it was really sleek.
He was nervous tonight because he his mother was in the crowd. He didn't curse in any of the songs because he said "no matter how old I am, I will never curse in front of my mother… she's an elementary school teacher." I thought that was really sweet. Chelsea is a great singer and a songwriter; he really put every emotion into his songs as he was just performing them for the first time.
Between the good and the sad lyrics he is a talented kid with a story to tell. No wonder when I looked around the room 80% of the people were quietly singing along. Well Matthew Winters might of been a little loud…. just kidding! Chelsea said he had a girlfriend that brought him to a Rocky show when he was 21 and he instantly was hooked. Might have even been a Bro-mance letter to Rocky from him, so Chelsea was the perfect fit to play before him.
Rocky Votolato is currently on a house tour; in fact he will be playing at Chrisy's house tomorrow night. Rocky seemed genuinely kind. He had rustic rich smooth vocals and lyrics to go along with them. The harmonica was a cool touch.
I loved how he played a Cat Stevens cover, a song he wrote for his hero Mahat Magandi, and his songs "Montana" and "Suicide Medicine" that the crowd yelled out when he asked for requests. I giggled when he said he wrote a song about how his son taught him how to keep aliens from reading his mind. It was just a cool set; personal and fun.
Like Paper Mache, the crowd was singing along and there was a reason why the place was as full as it was. Rocky Votolato has a new record due out early next year; I would keep an eye out for it. Hopefully he can come back through when it is out, we'd love to go!
Andrea@checkitoutmusic.com
checkitoutmusic.com 2007-2009
