Hyper Gumbo

Went and saw Frank and friends at the Jazz Alley last night. He brought rhythm guitar and violin, a sparse setup on stage of three little sound cubes, only the violinist having a pedal to fiddle with. They started out fast and just kept getting faster. He is truly amazing when he gets going. It was a very funny and energetic show, with covers of Led Zepp, ballet, and opera, alongside the expected Django renditions. Every once in a while, they’d thrown in a synchronized physical flourish, like little faux ballet moves during the ballet cover, and guitar-kicks during the rock numbers. Which is not to say it wasn’t a jazz show, with intimate audience interaction and banter with a recognized regular in that oh-so-knowing tone of who-remembers-when-best-oh-weren’t-those-the-days. He had this funky little tuning device on the end of his guitar, looked almost like a prism, and would change colors between red, green, I think yellow, and blank, as he played.

Foodwise, the spaghetti and meatballs was it’s usual tasty, but for whatever reason, our waitress never gave me a chance to order dessert, oh well. I suppose if I’d really had to have some key-limey-ness, I could have stopped by Whole Foods on the way home, but I was hurrying to get my Chocolati fix on.