[ATTENDED: April 27, 2018] Becca Mancari
I hadn’t heard of Becca Mancari before this show. So when Becca’s pedal steel player came out and sat at the instrument, I wondered if this is what she looked like and what she played.
Well, after a minute or so of pretty, trippy, soaring pedal steel (which Sarah said reminded her of Sigur Ros), Becca came out in a jump suit and goggles and started playing her guitar. I have no idea if this outfit is typical.
The first song was rather serious, so I was surprised that after the first song, she started chatting with us and was very funny and quite silly.
I gather she felt like an alien in the jump suit and goggles. She was certainly goofy with her story of being an alien, but she won us all over. My favorite comment of hers was when she said that her pedal steel guitarist, Blake Reams, looked 12, which he did–especially when he made a darling face–but that he needed a smoke break.
She switched between acoustic and electric guitar as on “Arizona Fire.”
She played seven or eight songs including a dynamite cover of CSNY’s “Ohio” and a song in which two of the three sisters from Joseph cam eout to sing with her. (She had made some jokes about being the lost fourth sister).
Becca’s voice was really good, although a little too loud for the theater. It’s a very small space and she could probably have worked unmiced. But by the end of her set we were won over and quite happy to by her CD.
We timed it very nicely because she came over to the merch table just as we bought the CD and she and Blake signed it. (Even though he assures us that his signature would decease the value).
I don’t know her song titles, and there was no setlist, but at a show recently, she played these songs, which seems about right (ones in bold are songs I know she played).
- Long Way Down
- Waiting So Long
- Kitchen Dancing
- Arizona Fire
- Annie
- Summertime Mama
- Devil’s Mouth
- Dirty Dishes
- Ohio
- Golden
Leave a Reply