Sarah Borges rocks

I wouldn't have thought good honky tonk could come from Boston, but Sarah Borges and the Broken Singles proved me wrong last night. She's a pint-sized girl with a big voice, and a phenomenal backing band, including a guitarist with an incredibly natural feel for his instrument. Check out the video. This is the first song they played last night at the Hideaway.

(Video removed)

Coming up on Sunday at the Hideaway is North Carolinian Jim Lauderdale, who, I was told last night, is from Beaufort. But when I checked that online today, I see that he's from Statesville. Maybe I'll get to chat with him on Sunday and find out the scoop. Following Jim (it's an early show), The Makes Nice and Sir Arthur and His Royal Knights will be at Slim's. The Makes Nice include a former member of The Champs, but my understanding is that they're much more pop-oriented than that band.

To-do this weekend

Even though I've been blogging since 2002, in some ways I feel like I really started only a couple of years ago. That's when I began taking photos and video with my trusty little Nikon and uploading the results to Flickr/Youtube. One of the first bands I documented in this manner was Dirty Johnny & the Make-Believes, who played at Slim's on Nov. 11, 2005. They'll be back in town this Saturday, again at Slim's, with the Straight 8's. As this picture from that November evening shows, they put on a rowdy show. Go see them.

The night before, the T's are playing an early show at Sadlack's for free! For those of you who hate driving to Raleigh (which is understandable, since I hate driving to Chapel Hill), they'll be at The Cave the night before. That will not be an early show, and as far as I know, won't be free.

Whenever I leave my camera home, I always see a great band

I deliberately left my camera home last night when I went to see The T's at Slim's, because I've documented them several times, and kind of wanted a night off. That was a mistake, because the band who opened for them, The Lonely H from Port Angeles, Washington, was pretty extraordinary -- a '70s symphonic-rock extravaganza unlike anything I've seen around here. I've you've been in Slim's for the past month, you've probably seen the Led Zeppelin I-looking poster with the five hair-bears all huddled together under the word HAIR. Well, that's them, and that poster pretty much sums them up in more ways than one. They are hairy, though they're so young, it looked like only one of them could sprout hair on his face. And they have some very distinct Zep influences, though honestly I heard more Zep on their CD, particularly one song that came a little too close to "That's the Way." Both Stephen and Martin said they reminded them of Meatloaf, which is fitting because all their songs had this powerhouse rock-opera quality a la "Paradise by the Dashboard Light." The guitars owed a lot to Queen and Thin Lizzy. And just to hammer that last point home they even covered, and nailed, "Cowboy Song." It really is too bad I didn't get footage of them, because they really were one of the best bands I've seen around here in a while. The T's rocked as usual. Seriously, they get better and better each time I see them. Thanks also to Rick Cornell for mentioning the blog in this week's Indy.

If you want to know why I love The Trousers so much ...

Check out this video from Friday night's show at Slim's: I just like this band more and more each time I see them, which isn't nearly often enough. I got couple of OK photos too.

This second photo is funny because it looks almost like Russ is on stage with them, which wouldn't be unusual considering Russ is in every other band in town. The Loners were great as usual. I swear, I think they're the most popular band in town now because every time I see them, the place is packed with rabid fans. It was cool to see Eddie quoted in the N&O the other day too.