delta spirit

After a fun acoustic set from the boys of Delta Spirit at Cactus Music, they headed across town to Warehouse Live to headline a packed room of Houston hipsters and bro's. They aborted their acoustic instruments of earlier in the day, and dawned their electrified cousins as soon as they made their way to the stage. After a sneak peak at the setlist, I saw that they were starting with one of the many songs I was longing to hear, "People, Turn Around," so I decided to leave the rest of the set a secret and stopped reading from there. After an abbreviated version of the sing-a-long, Delta Spirit tore into a run of songs alternating between cuts from the new album, including "Bushwick Blues," "911" and "White Table," as well as a choice of classic songs like "Strange Vine" and "Streetwalker." The energy was in abundance during the first half of the set, but didn't really explode until an off-the-cuff cover of Pink Floyd's "Comfortably Numb" that led into the always fun to hear "Trashcan." Two of my favorites from the new album, "St. Francis" and "Vivian" followed, and the set ended with the one-two Ode To Sunshine punch of "Children" and "People C'mon." After a quick encore break, the group returned for what was supposed to be a run through their scorcher, "Crippler King," but was really a cover of the Isley Brothers "Shout" that found frontman Matt Vasquez joining us in the audience and bringing everyone to their knees – ala the scene from Animal House – before bringing everyone back up for a huge dance party. The show finished with a classic cut, "Gimme Some Motivation" which kept the energy going, and left everyone dripping with sweat after jumping up and down throughout the end.

Even after seeing them six times, they always seem to amaze me with ease. They are a solid young band that has a huge career ahead of them. They write songs that are easy to relate to, yet also fun to dance or sway along to. Vasquez is what you want in a front man, with unbridled energy from start to finish and a personality to match. With his Houston roots, it was a great homecoming for him, and the rest of the band also seemed very comfortable here in the Bayou City. I can't wait until I get another chance to see Delta Spirit again – I'm guessing by the size of their crowd for this show, that they will definitely be making a return trip to Houston on their next go-around.

I took a bunch of photos from the show, which you can find after the jump.

A while back, San Diego indie-rockers Delta Spirit came to town for a headlining spot at Houston's Warehouse Live. Before that show, which I have a ton of pictures and video to post from, they made their way to our fair city's best record store, Cactus Music. Frontman Matt Vasquez held the reins, performing 6 acoustic numbers with additional support from the rest of the band on auxiliary instrumentation. The set started with four of their best new tracks including "White Table," "Bushwick Blues," "Random Man" and "Ballad Of Vitaly," as well as a rare gem that left Vasquez alone and a rollicking countrified full band version of "Trashcan" to close out the short in-store performance. It was a great showcase by a great band, which only got our group of friends in attendance even more excited for the ensuing electrified performance later in the night.

You'll soon hear more about the Warehouse Live show, but for now browse a collection of my photos from the Cactus Music performance after the jump.

I've been reminiscing lately about my summer travels to several of the U.S.'s best musical events, especially the many great bands I witnessed on my trek. One show in particular still stands out above the rest – Delta Spirit in This Tent, Thursday night at Bonnaroo 2009. Their set was initially scheduled for early afternoon on Thursday, but due to some technical difficulties with their plane at DFW, they couldn't arrive on time to fill their spot. Thankfully, they caught a later flight out, borrowed some instruments from an earlier band, and were dealt a prime slot – closing out the largest tent to a rain-soaked, fresh-legged first-day festival crowd. I'd been trying to get my group of about 10 others to see Delta Spirit all day, but due to the sporadic downpours, drunkenness and festival ADD, I'd lost my entire crew by the start of the set. Unfortunately, for them, they missed the best performance of the weekend, one that still sticks with me even more than the two major headlining spots by that favorite band of mine. I caught a few of the songs on video, but recently I found the closing duo of my favorite, "People, Turn Around," and the scorcher, "Crippler King," that sent the several hundred in attendance back out in the rain with a giddy stride to their step. Check it out:

I didn't catch it when I saw it live, but you gotta give much respect for the H-Town shout-out towards the end of "Crippler King" – "Holy cow, look at all of you...we've never played in front of this many people before, we're usually a bar band. So, if you could just image yourself at some fucking juke like Walter's on Washington in Houston, TX, you'll be doing great." I can assuredly tell you that I didn't need to put my imagination into Houston's best indie-rock club to be having a good time. I can't wait to catch them again live. By the sounds of it, they won't be skipping our fair city on their next tour, so I should be getting another Delta Spirit show sometime real soon.

About a year ago, we headed to Houston's Meridian to catch a headlining performance from Southern California singer-songwriter Matt Costa, who was supported by the up-and-coming buzz-band Delta Spirit. They put on a pretty great performance, but at about 40 minutes or so, it was not nearly long enough. After seeing this Take Away Show from La Blogotheque, my need to catch this band again has greatly increased.

Check out a couple more videos from this series after the jump

Delta Spirit's official website
Walter's On Washington official website