It seems that lately I’ve been hanging out at the Tin Angel and that’s ok with me because it’s a decent music venue.  Someone once asked me what my favorite Philly venue was to which I had no reply.  Their favorite venue happened to be the Tin Angel (admittedly a possibly biased opinion because they used to work there).  Well, these days I think the Tin Angel might be my favorite venue too.

So, why was I at the Tin Angel this Saturday? To see LAURA SHAY – of course!  Man, there was a time when I could see a Laura Shay (or any of my favorite Philly artists) show a few times a month but times have changed so whenever I get to see my favorite artists it’s like a major event.

For this particular performance it was Laura Shay (keyboard, vocals, and acoustic guitar), Dominic Cole (electric guitar and acoustic guitar), Michael Litt (drums), Andy McGowan (bass and backing vocals) and Karen Shay (percussion).  Laura usually starts her sets solo but this time it was full band.  At about mid-set we were told that the set was being recorded and a recording could be purchased at the end of the show.  That’s a nice feature that the Tin Angel offers.  Towards the end of the set is when Laura played a few tunes solo.  Then the band came back one final time to play a few more tunes.  At the end, the crowed enthusiastically cheered Laura on to play an encore – so, Laura and band played one final tune.

There were many highlights and interesting moments during this show.  The talk about clipping coupons, Laura explaining how her music affects her now, her very emotional playing of “Learning”, a haunting cover of “Mad World” by Gary Jules, and a great cover of Patsy Cline’s “Walkin’ After Midnight” were some of the few wonderful moments I remember from this show.  Well, not that I ever for a second doubted it but this show has reminded just how talented a singer-songwriter Laura Shay is and I hope that I can attend another performance some time soon.

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