feversmile

Bickett Gallery Music Feat. The New Familiars and Gambling the Muse

Patrons dance to music and mingle around the artwork inside The Bickett Gallery.

Friday night myself, Gretchen and Jen headed down to The Bickett Gallery in the Five Points area in Raleigh. The Bickett Gallery is first and foremost a gallery space featuring local artists. Artwork from Sharon Marcussen and Liz Adams where on display around the gallery in their “East Meets West” show. Wonderful work with great characters and depth in the print pieces.

Jen tries on Molly’s fake fur/print coat while at the bar.

We spoke to Molly, the owner for The Bickett Gallery and told her is was one of our new favorite places. The gallery is not only a gallery space, but an “Art Bar” which has a full bar, an outside patio space with a great overlooking view of the city. It’s also within a few miles of our house, which of course helps as well. She unfortunately told us they where closing in six weeks as she just wasn’t getting enough business. So anyone out there who wants to sponsor a great space with a cool vision, step right up, please!

The New Familiars

The New Familiars rip roaring, “Rowdy” performance started out the night to a good crowd for the space. Musically they reminded me a bit of the Hackensack Boys with their bluegrass, acoustics and presentation. Dressed all in black with red accents they stood out from the stark white walls of the gallery, though everyone had a great time and they where a great fit for the space. Though I think I’d love to see them in a noisy bar where people will more likely get up and dance to their foot-stomping good time. Eric-Scott and Justin on vocals melted well and the boys from Charlotte a good time with everyone.

Gambling the Muse

Well, my second time I’m writing about Gambling the Muse, obviously becoming one of my favorite area bands, but that could be that I need to get out to see more bands as well. But coming from Columbus, I’m getting a new sound from this area, more bluegrass and southern sound and I’m really loving it. Daniel Snyder and Katy Harris’ (also rhythm guitar) vocals complement each other beautifully while Jason Butler’s guitar work provides a strong melody on most songs. Rounding out the band is Doc – dobro, mandolin, Jackson Parrish – drums, Lance Westerlund – bass, and Stephanie Attia – violin. I love the side/mandolin, I would guess that came from too much listening to Robert Randolph, Doc really ads the depth to their sound that I think the band would be lost without. Stephanie’s violin reminds me of the days I played with Megan Palmer in my livingroom in Grandview/Columbus. Overall a great show, if you haven’t heard Three Shallow Graves, take listen on their Myspace or website, it’s really wonderful and you get a good idea of what their sound is. The two bands played off each other very well and should try to make as many appearances together as possible.
I wish both bands and The Bickett gallery all the best, hope to see everyone out again, thanks for a good night out.

This entry was posted on Sunday, April 8th, 2007 at 11:59 am. It is filed under art, life, music, photography. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.