I've never seen Ed Kuepper so lively. After 29 years of music-making you think he'd be ready to slow down, but he's been steadily releasing at least one CD a year for as long as I can remember. During the gig, he engaged the crowd after nearly every song, and you could see he was enjoying himself. He even brought a girl up on stage so her friend could sing her Happy Birthday, and proceeded to finish his 2 hour(!) set with a piano-accompanied (but otherwise band-less) heartfelt rendition of everything I've got belongs to you, encouraging the crowd to sing along (well, they tried). There was a big crowd for this, so I didn't take a heap of photos, it was just too awkward.

Support was by Dan Kelly and his as-yet unnamed band, who played either side of Silver Ray, who I'd been hanging out to see after picking up This is Silver Ray a few months ago. As they power through the intense, storm-like No need to try now, the keyboardist thrashes her head to and fro, which is just how I'd imagined from hearing the song on CD, and a bit of free association led me to remember the old video for The Church's Ripple, which had Marty Willson-Piper doing the very same thing in his nice purple shirt. Silver Ray have a new album due next month, on Pharmacy.

[ see all Ed Kuepper photos. ]