by Jon Bauer
Last night a sold out crowd at August Hall was treated to a notable night of music. Starting with a jazzy baseline, gradually adding keys and guitar, and finally vocals, Rhye offered up a soulful, sexy, superlative opening to the show.
Mike Milosh (aka Milosh), known for his falsetto brilliance in Rhye, played the last of his 6 stop mini-tour – a stripped down acoustic set that was tender, funny, sexy, and raw in all the right ways.
Joined by his band – Roland Lefox on bass (he also created one of the most beautiful posters for the night that I’ve ever seen), Ben Schwier on keyboard, and Josh Lippi on guitar.
Mike was clearly in his element loving the vibe of the night. He was also playful.
At the end of one of the songs, he added percussion via beat boxing, and he “painted a picture” of fictitious slightly overweight, long-haired drummer that grooved with the song to end it – complete with Roto Toms, and crashing symbols.
Before starting “It’s Over,” he implored the crowd, “This song is super sad, so if you are talking – you are kind of an asshole.” The chatter stopped.
In another song, he created a tender duet with the audience, with the crowd singing “gimme love gimme love gimme love, oh I’m fading now” while he sang falsetto ooh’s and ah’s in tandem with the lyrics.
On “Hold On,” he switched to a microphone that had a vocal harmonizer / pitch processor, turning his voice into a choral effected sound, and ended with lyrics from The Chordettes “Mr. Sandman, bring me a dream.” Loved that!
The 12 song set spanned Rhye’s catalog (and introduced a few new songs,) and showed a range of emotions – ending the night with a feeling of gratitude for being able to share this moment with this music with these people in this beautiful place.
Opening for Rhye, was R E L (Arielle Sitrick) and joined by guitarist Tre Ulseth – introducing the crowd to her new incarnation – Elleira, she described the project as “living in the space between water and sky – the liminal horizon.” With an emotional, raw, “drink tea on a rainy day” vibe, R E L and the audience connected. Perhaps it was the fact that Arielle’s parents were in the audience, perhaps it was just a crowd that seemed to be in close sync with her, but she shared some recent traumatic personal events (a rare cancer) before revealing that she recorded her first Elleira album in Topanga soon after. Imbued with concern, hope, gratitude, and love, the new music resonated. I can’t wait to hear what she has in store for us when she releases her album!
