Free Love | Derek James

I'm trying this new thing where I only allow myself one drink when I go out. It's about time I start saving my money instead of living from paycheck to pay check. Not only do I save money on the overpriced drinks of New York City, but also I've been sober enough to take the long subway ride back to Brooklyn instead of hopping into a cab. I've also sworn off coffee and diet coke, too. This could be a mini detox that will last, oh, a week. We shall see.

So last night, my sober self enjoyed a quite fabulous evening with the gals, starting at Rockwood Music Hall, the classiest and least pretentious venue in the Lower East Side. It's quite possibly the best show of The Undispusted Heavyweights that I have seen yet, where their sound was crystal clear, the crowd was heavily involved, and you could actually feel some crazy sort of magic in the air every time lead singer Casey Shea opened his mouth. I think my new goal in life is to bring a new person to see the Heavyweights every time they play. It's so pleasing to see the look on their face during the show and then hear them gush afterwards.

I know, I told them. They are great.

The highlight for me was their cover of "Fly Me To The Moon." It gave me chills.

Anyway, I could gush on and on myself, but let's face it, I've done it time and time before. Just come check them out next Friday at the Underrated show and we can gush together afterwards.

After the Heavyweights we all hopped into a cab to see Derek James over at Knitting Factory. I had a Derek James mp3 from ages ago, one that kept making it on to subsequent mixes, but I had never heard anything else or seen him live. A friend of mine (that shall remain nameless) had an interesting run-in with Mr. James and his band one evening, causing a slight obsession with his music. So there we were, among the most interesting crowd I'd ever seen at Knitting Factory, watching this quite enigmatic performer on stage.

Derek James is easily the most mainstream ready artist I have seen recently, and without any qualms, I want him to be huge. He looks like a young Bruce Springsteen (actually the resemblance is uncanny) and sounds like a mixture of a lot of the big mainstream pop singer/songwriters out there, but with an added charm. His songs side with more rock tendencies than pop, but with extremely catchy hooks that had the crowd dancing through the entire set.

Did I mention that crowd was about 70% young females that were eating up every word out of his mouth? That kind of love doesn't hurt either.

I was quite impressed with Mr. James, more so than I anticipated. It had been a while since I had seen people go so nutty over an act, and frankly, it was well deserved.

Check out Derek on myspace and buy his debut Stray on emusic.

Derek James - Free Love

Derek James - Ain't No Thing Is Perfect