Mastodon

Devyn Rush at Rockwood Music Hall

Send to Kindle

I really don’t want to write this post. I am not a professional music critic. I prefer being positive about the many things that there are to celebrate and promote. Still, I find myself compelled, mostly because of my previous comments about Devyn.

Devyn Rush appeared at Rockwood Music Hall yesterday. We had previously seen her perform three songs as part of the American Idol Rejects Show at Rockwood 2. I wrote a long-ish section about her in that post. In the middle I wrote this:

While I was impressed with her performance in general, I’ll need to see her in a different setting to know what I really think of her. I wasn’t drawn to the particular song selection.

Having seen a full set of hers last night, accompanied by her own band, I’m unfortunately left with the same impression.

DevynRush

Devyn has an excellent voice. She plays the piano reasonably well and the guitar well enough. She moves gracefully (if a bit provocatively) and projects beams of sunshine on stage.

DevynRushPiano

Her song selection didn’t move me. Her songwriting has room for improvement. Her set preparation (rehearsal with the band, etc.) could have been better.

She was accompanied by three people, left-to-right on stage:

Adam Price on clarinet (Devyn mentioned he also plays sax). Adam’s solos were exceptional, he’s clearly very talented. When he played fills while Devyn was singing, or in the brief moments between verses that weren’t solos, the clarinet didn’t seem to fit as well. On his site he mentions that he’s new to Devyn’s band so the arrangements are probably still being worked out.

AdamPriceAdamPriceJasonBookman

Jason Bookman on acoustic guitar (no good individual link). Jason did a fine job (rhythm) and seemed to be the band leader.

JasonBookman

Zac Greenberg on upright bass (no good individual link). Zac was very good throughout the set.

ZacGreenberg

Half of the set was covers. A couple felt like curious choices given the specific band setup, which at times sounded jazzy.

I have no doubt that Devyn’s performances would appeal to many people, so don’t be dissuaded in going out to see her on account of my opinion.


Posted

in

,

by

Comments

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *