Mindy Smith & Landon Pigg @ Anthology, 1.21.10

Before making my way to Casbah for Sezio's big night on Thursday, I went to Antholigy to see Landon Pigg and Mindy Smith. Jeff bought tickets so we decided to make our way down early to have some dinner before the show. I'd been to Anthology for a few happy hours and had some snacks, but having a full dinner was phenomenal, and I recommend it to anyone heading there for a show. Anthology is tied in with the SoundDiego project, and as such I mentioned I'd be there and was super grateful for the complimentary appetizer...goat-cheese stuffed medjool dates wrapped in bacon. My mouth is watering just thinking about them.

But enough about the food. The show, too, was excellent. Landon Pigg started the night and while I wasn't familiar with his music, I happened to recall that he was the first musician to ever friend request me on MySpace. I guess the name just always stuck out. Over the years he's played San Diego a handful of times but I'd never listened to his music until he played this song, and he solved the mystery of "who sings that one sing in that one commercial" for me:



He was cute and awkward about the seated crowd eating dinner, but his music was great and the piano accompaniment was perfect for the venue.



After Landon finished, there was a quick break (less than 10 minutes) before Mindy Smith came out. I had been turned on to her music by my old boss, Jack Poe, who loved her voice and told me to get over the Jesus stuff and hear it for what it was, and he was right. I listened to that CD endlessly for a period and so I was pleased, since that was almost 6 years ago, that I still knew that music and she still played it. She was also cute and awkward, explaining that she hadn't packed a hairbrush for the trip and then telling stories about her songs, trying to compensate for the sadness and melancholy of her songs with funny stories between songs.



But there were sad songs that also got sad stories, like the one below, which was written for her mother who died in 1991 from Breast Cancer. Apparently the song has been adopted by many breast cancer organizations and I always admire singers who can tell such stories, even with time passed, and not totally lose their shit onstage, because I know were I in their shoes, my voice would quiver, the tears would pour, and I'd be done.



But the night wasn't all somber and she played a lot of songs in a little over an hour long set and I was glad that I had the opportunity to go (Thanks, Jeff!). I don't really do the jazz stuff, but Anthology has some shows that veer from the jazz and blues that I'm considering checking out, like Mike Doughty or Toad The Wet Sprocket. The show ended early and I made it in time to catch the full set from the opening band at the Casbah which worked out perfect for someone like me that isn't satisfied with just one concert in a night. Here are a couple more videos and there are some more photos after the jump (click 'keep on reading')