Show Overview: Jay Smith with The Devil's Half Acre and Young River

Posted by noisography March 20, 2011

Show Overview: Jay Smith with The Devil's Half Acre and Young River

Show Overview/ Photos & Video by Kyle Hodder

March 16th, 2011

The Paragon Theatre

10pm - $5

Jay Smith
http://www.facebook.com/jaysmithband

The Devil's Half Acre
http://facebook.com/TheDevilsHalfAcreMusic

Young River
http://www.youngriverband.com/

The night started with myself +one showing up at 9:30ish. 2 beers and a half of rye and ginger later the first of the three bands Young River took the spotlight.

Before hearing these guys I was trying to guess what I might be in store for, just going by the name alone I figured… ok I hoped… Neil Young/Down by the River. These cats were pretty tight and blazed through their set. I checked their MySpace out afterwards which doesn’t do their live show justice. If My Morning Jacket and Hayden were having tea and crumpets in the same coffee house and these guys started to play they would stop and listen. They list themselves as straight up rock but one could maybe see subtle undertones of country and folk as well.

Video:

The 2nd band of the night, The Devils Half Acre brought their loyal following. The place filled up before these guys started. I had to change locations a few times to see past bodies and over heads. Each song had its own unique flavour including my favourite The Circle. The lead singer Chase seems like a real down to earth guy. He thanked Noisography for coming out. I also chatted with their drummer briefly who along with Chase noted this was their bands first show playing together. Impressive.

Video:

The closer of this fine eve was Jay Smith.
The boys from Young River backed him up superbly. Their sound reminded my +1 of Nathan Wiley and me The Odds especially with the song “Romantic Fool”. My ears perked up when Jay mentioned he was in California once and opened for Mike Ness of Social Distortion.