The Stone Tavern was lit up with its usual psychedelic decorations and original crowd-pleasing performances last Thursday night.
Born and raised in Erie, Penn. Tommy Link opened up the night with his folk, indie acoustics in the little downtown bar. His humor and personal stories charmed the crowd throughout his performance.
Link’s songs incorporates his singing and guitar playing in experiences and stories of his life with his family going from Ohio and Pennsylvania. He learned to play the piano as a kid, and is also a front man for the band “Strangers and Liars” since 2012. His newly released EP Quiet Gusto consists of six original songs.
One of his first songs, "Quiet on the Shoreline" was written about his memories living on Lake Erie as a kid with his family. It showed off his indie guitar playing, setting the relaxed mood for the night.
Link told the audience a story of a Toyota Corolla his brother got for $200 and the memories he has driving in that in the song “Last I Ever Heard.” The song ended with a strong acoustic guitar solo and after the song, he explained that the car was eventually “put down” after a couple years.
"Hey Mr. Hateful" was a refreshing upbeat tune about the powerful, hateful people trying to get into government chairs and get in charge. Influential lyrics deemed this song one of the best of the night.
In 2016, it’s fair to say that a lot of people own a smartphone. Tommy Link pulled out what he calls his “alligator phone,” an old flip-phone that we can all admit we once had.
Link’s music inspirations include Billy Joel, Bob Dylan, Tom Petty, George Harrison, and Paul Simon. Link also stated it was “nice seeing people sitting around enjoying each other.”
Definitely check out his website tommylinkinc.com and like his Facebook page.
SIRSY, a popular rock duo touring around the United States played next and wowed the crowd with its soulful beats.
Made up of Melanie Krahmer on the vocal and drums, and Richard Libutti on the guitar and bass, along with other instruments, the duo has been making notice around the nation since 2003.
“We don’t really have a life, we’re always on tour,” says Krahmer while talking to the crowd.
Krahmer introduced their set with a love song labeled "Goner," for “anyone who has fallen madly in love with a pain in the ass.” The song showed off their classic sound of soul and rock mixed with some sass in Krahmer’s powerful vocals.
Libutti showed off his guitar skills in "Crazy," an urban rock, psychedelic guitar style single.
Their song "Cannonball," has gained some popular notice in the media industry, where it was featured on an episode of Shameless on Showtime. If you’re feeling frisky, the song was a part of an episode with around 12 sultry sex scenes (wink wink).
SIRSY took a serious note on the night and played a requested song ‘Brave and Kind,’ written about Krahmer’s battle against cancer, which she states will be five years surviving cancer on April 14. The emotional and moving lyrics made this song very powerful and is one of their greatest hits.
My personal favorite of the night was when SIRSY played "Revolution," a song about doing your own thing. The bar was rocking out and then all of sudden the crowd was cheering Krahmer on when she did a flute solo! It was like we were all transported to a Jethro Tull concert and Ian Anderson starting rocking out on his flute. It was something I’ll definitely remember for a long time, especially since I played the flute for 9 years throughout school.
The night ended with a great song that then amused the crowd further when Libutti played his guitar solo with a drumstick and a snippet of the Star Wars theme song was played.
Check out their website Sirsy.com and like their Facebook page.
I got the chance to talk to Tommy Link and Melanie Krahmer and get a copy of their cds. Both are very talented musicians who I hope to see in the future.