Shows: Joanie Mendenhall and The Duke Spirit

This week I had the pleasure of attending not one but two shows–I must make up for lost time, after all–at the Casbah and Belly Up Tavern respectively. 

The first was for Joanie Mendenhall’s CD (”On a String”) release–she’s also a member of local band The Ex-Friends–and had the pleasure of going with my friend Christy, who knew Mendenhall in high school.

The show was an excellent one. Mendenhall was earnestly confident on stage, as was her band, which includes guitarist/violinist Ray Suen, who recently joined the Killers. The set was long but good and showcased Mendenhall’s multi-instrumental talents, as she pounded an electric piano–standing up–plucked a bass and, in a bait-and-switch with Suen, produced a face-melting (to borrow from Jack Black) guitar solo from bended knee. 

The Duke Spirit, in short, rocked. Liela Moss, the lead vocalist, looks not unlike a Swedish model but can play the harmonica better than your grandfather out on the porch. Clad in a black Spandex bodysuit–camel-toe be damned–and button down shirt, she strode the stage, possessed, occasionally stopping to thrust one hand aloft into the air with command. The band played at a blazing, breaknecked pace and did a selection of songs from their latest album, Neptune–and a few older tunes–seemingly without stopping.

Their current tour has, it seems, been costly for the group; during one of the few brief pauses, Moss informed the audience–to a chorus of cheers–that her family had to mortgage their house so they could hit the road. 

If you can catch these acts–if you live in SoCal or New Jersey, The Duke Spirit is hitting your town or one nearby as they travel the country–do; both are highly recommended by this writer.