Jack Bauer's Favorite Band

After reading good things about Rocco Deluca on random music blogs, I was pleasantly surprised to see that he would be playing at the 20th Century.  There has been some buzz about him for a while now, most of it stemming from the documentary for a small tour of Europe in 2005.

Keifer Sutherland, who released their first album on his IronWorks label, also acted as their tour manager. I have yet to see the movie, but I guess the former Lost Boy was a handful. They fired ol’ Keifer after the tour, and I'm sure that they would rather have us talk about how good they actually are as opposed to their connection to a celebrity.   

I was really surprised when I walked into the 20th Century Wednesday night. The place was already packed for the first opener, Sara Bareilles.  She played a nice mix of Piano Pop: Think Regina Spektor with a little Fiona Apple thrown in for the hell of it. She was very appreciative and thanked the crowd for already knowing the lyrics to her new CD, Little Voice. 

The second act was the forgettable Connecticut band Last Goodnight. I never fully trust people with faux-hawks, and the lead singer was already off to a bad start when he started to joke around with the young girls in the front row. Imagine every terrible Pop band from the late ’90s, and you have the Last Goodnight. I seriously thought that I was transported back to 1998 and an ex-girlfriend was going to come out of the shadows and start yelling at me. I couldn’t believe my ears when they said they had just finished a video and it was going to be on VH1 and MTV. Save the jokes about the stations still playing music videos; I guess they do, and it is terrible music. But what the hell do I know?  Maybe they'll be the next big thing. You heard it hear first, folks!

After an unbearable 45-minute set by the Last Goodnight and what seemed like an eternity to turn the stage, Rocco Deluca finally came on. I seriously thought about leaving before they even started. Last Goodnight just really made me depressed. It got me starting to think about how people find bands and how hard it must be to take something you love on the road and play in front of people who might hate you. God, I am an ass! So I decided to stick it out for Rocco. 

I was glad that I did. He was nothing like his opening acts. You could tell the he and his band were already veterans of the stage. They were tight and ready to put on a show for the adoring audience. He reminded me a lot of Ben Harper but without all of the political talk. His voice had echoes of Robert Plant, and he knew how to really play his guitar. 

The band was with him every step of the way. They followed him on every extended jam and even got to show off some of their own talents. They covered most of the album, I Trust You to Kill Me (great title by the way), and even broke into some new songs. 

So after the roller coaster evening, I'll admit that I was happy that I stuck around for Deluca’s set. Even though it might not have been earth-shattering and make me want to go and find every bootleg, I can appreciate a great musician doing his thing. He must be doing something right if he can get a packed house here in Cincinnati!

(photo: Keith Klenowski)

— Keith Klenowski

Comments

[Dan]

Was at that show, I'm glad that I wasn't the only one who hated the Last Goodnight...simply put, awful. How did they ever get a record deal?? Was happy to stumble into Sara Bareilles, though. I thought that she was damn good, and I'm admittedly not a big fan of that type of music. Rocco was awesome, but the Last Goodnight kind of, like you, put a damper on the evening.