Peter Himmelman @ The Regent Annex, August 5, 2007

This was my fist Peter Himmelman show and while I had made myself familiar with some of his CD’s I was not quite prepared for his stage antics… he has a huge stage presence – it literally enfolds the audience out there. Which was not there but at the Patti Smith show at the Barrymore – a point of note that Peter made sure the audience remembered by caustic comments peppered throughout the set… show and tell with his new iPhone… sharing the olfactory nuances of the various microphones on stage (with one of the mic’s smelling of cat urine, another of Burning Spear’s @#$, a third kicked to the floor in disgust). We were also made familiar with Mr. Himmelman’s grandfather’s accent, weather announcements on the Interstate and the keyboard player’s psycho/sociopath (ex) girlfriend.

Sometime during the show Mr. Himmelman started shedding himself of his belongings (literally) as he warmed up; his jacket – co-opted by a lady back in the audience who claimed she was feeling cold in her sleeveless black dress, his new iPhone which someone from the audience wanted to try out so ended up parking himself on a chair on stage while the band rocked on, and then his wallet to the trusted road manager.

Overall a highly entertaining show, even though I had to leave early to get back to my ‘other’ job that pays for my ever-expanding record collection. Wicked lyrics, caustic humor (even the camera man was not spared), a tight band and hard rocking guitarmanship marked the unique showmanship of Peter Himmelman.

Being not too familiar with Mr Himmelman’s songbook myself, I have neglected to list the numbers from last night so folks if you were there (there were about 60 of you there) please feel free to add a comment.

I almost forgot to mention SoDangYang with Jim Schwall on guitar who started off Sunday evening’s musical program with a great sounding set of country/alt/rock … songs that stood out were Big Rain, You Look Cooler when Your’e Playing Your Guitar, and a superb version of Dylan’s With God on Our Side.

Cheers – malliman/AM