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[jefflewis]

I'd never seen Michael Hurley play before, it was a cheap show at Brooklyn Bowl in Wiliamsburg. Unfortunately Brooklyn Bowl sucks for seeing solo acts, because the sound from the bowling lanes competes quite a bit with the performer, but it was still okay. He played a rather long set, almost an hour and a half, it could really have been just fine at 45 or 50 minutes, but I was impressed at his guitar playing (on a red electric guitar) and singing, which was JUST captivating enough to make it worth sticking out till the end . Also I was impressed at the set list, which was a really nice selection of songs I didn't know mixed in with old favorites from seemingly every part of his career, really the perfect kind of set that one could hope for from a guy like that. Not a greatest-hits set, but a real constant mixed bag of surprises and delights and zigs and zags. He must be in his mid-70s now, but he was still selling his own stuff at the merch table (I bought Parsnip Snips on vinyl and had him autograph it).
Also in attendance at the show were Peter Stampfel, Mike Rechner of Prewar Yardsale, Kelly of Most Dangerous Game Of Cat & Mouse Band, and Dashan of Huggabroomstick.

[kris]

Wow- what exactly is Brooklyn Bowl, just a regular sized bowling alley? It kind of amazes me that he's not playing to a larger crowd, at least the size of a typical Taj Mahal show. I don't know a whole lot about him, I just found out about him a few weeks ago, but I love his songs and guitar style, it's a great bluesy/country sound. His lyrics are great too- reminds me a lot of WO at times.

[jefflewis]

Brooklyn Bowl is actually a pretty sizable venue, I played an opening set for Dinosaur Jr there last year, and Yo La Tengo played there a few months ago, it's not a small venue. It's just a strange combination of a restaurant, a bar, a bowling alley, and a music venue, all in the same giant room. I don't know what the crowd capacity is for a show there, but it must be a few hundred. It wasn't totally packed for Hurley but I'd say there were maybe 100 people there for the show.
I now have a bunch of his albums - "First Songs", "Armchair Boogie", "Hi-Fi Snock Uptown", "Parsnip Snips" (I just bought this one at the show) and "Sweetkorn". Also have "Have Moicy" which was a collaboration album with some other folks. I think maybe "Armchair Boogie" (1971?) is the most famous/popular one, I'm not sure.