Bar/None CD Release Show at Mercury August 19 – Hotel Lights, Shannon McArdle, Starling Electric

Now this is a really excellent triple bill that we’re excited about. We received an invitation from Bar/None founder-president Glenn Morrow to attend this gig at Mercury Lounge on Tuesday August 19.

Hotel Lights is Darren Jessie’s band, who was the drummer of the Ben Folds Five. Darren’s underrated vocal chops and songwriting talents are in the forefront in Hotel Lights, and Tuesday’s show marks the release of his second album Firecracker People.

As I was setting up my equipment at Wednesday’s Wilco show, by complete coincidence Darren came up and stood with the group of people in front of me. I immediately recognized him and struck up a conversation about this show and my invitation from Bar/None to capture it. Darren was really upbeat about the new CD and his plans to play more shows after the Mercury show and his in-store show at Vintage Vinyl on August 20. There was a point from 1997 to 1999, when Wilco and Ben Folds Five were my favorite bands and it was a nice kind of surreal to be standing with one of “The Five” while watching Wilco perform a decade later.

Sample Hotel Lights:
Firecracker People – MP3 [download]

Shannon McArdle spent nearly a decade with the Mendoza Line, and when her marriage to fellow Mendoza Line member Timothy Bracy broke up, so did the band. After a year of writing and recording Shannon will release Summer of the Whore next week. The Village Voice did a nice write-up of Shannon and the new CD [here].

The opening band on this bill is Starling Electric, a psychedelic pop band from Michigan whose self-released CD caught the attention of Robert Pollard (Guided by Voices) and for whom they opened a series of shows. Bar/None signed them this year, and will release Clouded Staircase next week.

The Mercury Lounge showcase is an early show that begins at 6:30pm.