Fri 11/22 @ 7:30PM
Playhouse Square’s Hanna Theatre is showcasing three diverse local acts under the banner “millennial songwriters.”
The marketing seems a little odd.
It’s promoting the idea that somehow these acts are connected because they are “the first generation of songwriters to grow up with the Internet.”
While it’s true that the Internet has made a variety of music accessible, it’s nothing new that the best artists take their influences from many sources. If anything, these acts — a random selection of the many talented artists in town — are conventional though extremely good at what they do.
Headliners Pout, featuring the music of vocalist Michelle Romary and bassist/vocalist Teddy Wallingford, describe their music as a mash-up of “Cleveland rock and Detroit funk with Puerto Rican thump.”
They come across as a mainstream rock band with earnest ballads and rousing Midwestern-style rockers, with a touch of the epic drama of ’90s bands like Bush and Our Lady Peace. It’s not a stretch to imagine them opening to Michael Stanley or Pat Benatar in the ’80s. They’ve recently released a self-titled album, their second.
Lost State of Franklin, revolving around singer/songwriters J Scott Franklin and Tyler Postma, is one of the area’s many good roots rock/Americana-style bands, a genre that’s defined by its incorporation of a range of styles, including blues, country, jazz, and R&B.
With a retro-sounding repertoire ranging from torchy ballads to honky-tonk tunes, the band sometimes sounds like it’s on a tour of ’50s nightspots of very different types, changing clothes in their tour bus between spots.
The bill’s third act is pianist Matt Skitzki, who is firmly planted in the jazz — with sidetracks into classical music and 20th-century pop standards. He’ll appear with a small jazz combo. It’s outstanding music but nothing suggests the Internet was required to conceive it.
Maybe the PlayhouseSquare folks were trying just a bit too hard when they urged, “Grab your smart phone, tweet your friends, put on your shirt and tie (and jeans), and don’t miss this performance of ‘a little bit of everything.’”
In any case, this should be a great evening showcasing just a few of the multitude of talented area songwriters and bands.
Tickets are $20-$32.50.
www.skitzkipianoperformances.com/
Pout photo (above) by John W. Ward
