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David Bazan performing solo at Thirty-Thirty Cofee
(photo courtesy of Ty Paluska). |
Last Wednesday night my wife and I got to see the second night of
David Bazan's two night sold out stint at
Thirty-Thirty Cofee in Peoria (Peoria!). It was wonderful.
At around 9:30 he and his tour manager (that's a guess) parked right outside the coffee shop. He grabbed his guitar out of the trunk, came in the main door where all our chairs were facing, pulled out his guitar, and started playing, no sound system, just a man and his guitar. He played without pretension and with honest, raw passion and practiced skill. Bazan's voice is a rarity. It is a husky strong baritone and yet somehow delicate, commanding the room even when he easily enters into a raspy falsetto. In more ways than one he resembles the big ole bear he played next to the whole night
(Thirty-Thirty's mascot, a massive stuffed polar bear painted black to fit in with the German decor of the now defunct Jumer's castle lodge in Peoria).
I am always astounded at natural performers, performers who are so confident and at peace within themselves that their art just emanates from them. They give off the aura that they do not need us to be there as an audience, that they would be creating anyway, and that they have merely chosen to play for us as a pure gift. Bazan is this kind of performer.
