[ATTENDED: January 31, 2018] Mia Dyson
I had never heard of Mia Dyson before this show. She is a fellow Australian and old friend of Jen Cloher’s. I arrived just after her set was underway (amazingly, this was my first time at Johnny Brenda’s, I haven’t quite sussed out parking there, yet).
Mia’s set was really enjoyable. She has a kind of Bonnie Raitt/rootsy vibe. As she was singing her songs and I was impressed with her vocal power, her guitar playing and the cool bass and drums parts these songs had.
I don’t really love roots music typically, but her set worked great live. And the audience responded appropriately. She even said that she had played Philly and never had a good show here, until this one.
Most (8 of 10) songs were from her new (unreleased) album. And each of those songs featured some really solid guitar soloing. The were a good mix of rocking songs (“Diamonds”) and slower ones (“Gambling“) with solid backing vocal harmonies. There’s great groovin’ riffs, like in “Nothing”–a song I liked for the interesting drum beat and the great way the chorus plays out. I also really loved the kind of bass solo in the middle.
Her lyrics were largely really great–powerful and interesting. She said that “Everything Is Waiting for You” was written for her newly born nephew–a song of hope and love about all of the things he can look forward to.
“When the Moment Comes” has one those choruses where the music drops back and then builds up again–super catchy and fun to rock out to. It’s uplifting and pretty cool. It also had a great wailing slide guitar solo.
She had a great introduction to her song “Fool” which is “speaking to that little girl in all of us, especially these dudes [points to hairy guys up front], who doesn’t give a fuck what any one thinks and loves to play … loves to make a mess and is not listened to enough as an adult.” There were great harmonies on the chorus and she really rocked out.
“I Want Honey” was from her previous EP. It started as a slow bluesy song but had a big powerful chorus that rocked hard.
The opening to “Bleeding Heart” was really funny about her and her husband camping in a RV in the Los Padres National Forest on Christmas Eve. The snow started falling and they saw an elf–it freaked them out but it helped them to finish the song. And then later they found out it was a man in an elf apron dressing up for his kids.
“Open” was a fun song that features a lot of high bass notes and totally rocked.
For the final song, “Being Scared” she switched to acoustic guitar and sand a really pretty ballad.
Dyson was a terrific opener and her band, Erin “Syd” Sidney on drums and David Hood on bass, were fantastic–tight as a drum and perfect accompaniment.
Setlist
- Diamonds
- Gambling
- Nothing
- Everything is Waiting for You
- When the Moment Comes
- Fool
- I Want Honey
- Bleeding Heart
- Open
- Being Scared
Interestingly you can watch her whole set right here.
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