Thursday’s are the new Friday. Both my emotional state and event calendar seem to be matching this sentiment. We’ve had a couple pretty big Thursday’s since the new year and I expect this trend to continue. We went into the night with a lofty goal of hitting three separate shows across the city, including stops at Zanzabar, Headliners and Rye on Market– and yes, we were successful.
We started with Charlie Mars at Zbar. Charlie returned to Louisville after his successful Winter Wednesday to a much smaller crowd. He kept it simple as he told stories and played his guitar, just like the first time, and even though we heard some of the same stories, we enjoyed it just the same. We brought along a friend for the nights adventures, and she felt similarly to what I did the first time we saw him: as much as we enjoy his basic portrayal of his songs, she didn’t know if she even would want to see it done with a full band. The cool thing is that it doesn’t appear to matter if Charlie Mars is playing for 30,000+ Canadians, a couple hundred seated public radio patrons or a handful of fans in a dark bar, he’s going to put on a quality show that will keep your feet tapping.
Next, we headed to Headliners for a much anticipated Jukebox the Ghost show. I didn’t realize until hearing it on WFPK that day, but Ben Thornewill, pianist and vocalist for the band, is a Louisville native. A homecoming always brings out great energy from the band and crowd, and JtG really brought it. Their pop sound and easy flowing lyrics are very catchy and hard not to enjoy, even if its not your usual music choice. Their contagious and devout fan following jammed out with the equally energetic band.
The night wrapped up at Rye on Market for a special installment of their Back Room Sessions (relative to the widely popular Back Porch Sessions in the summer) highlighting some local, on the rise talent. Kentuckiana’s darlings, Houndmouth, were slinging drinks behind the bar, bringing in a large crowd for that reason alone. We were among the group that was equally interested in the music being played in the tiny, packed room. We missed Scott Moore and Niles Foley who played first, but caught several songs from Lazy Sunday. When I say the room was filled to the brim, I am not exaggerating- as a shorty, I never got an actual view of the band performing, and even chose to sit on a table to avoid being squished. We’ve heard of Lazy Sunday, but hadn’t seen them perform before that night- the brass and the overall funk, jam vibe was a perfect end to the night. Dr. Dundiff closed it out, but we had to head out, as it was already pushing 1am. Not too shabby for a week night.
-Aubrey
Live Music Louisville 
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