Dave’s Photo Blog

I had the pleasure of attending a show at the Limelight on Tremont Street this past Sunday, and decided to write about it. The band that I saw there, January Broke, was making their first appearance with a drummer. Previously, they had played with just guitar and bass or guitar and piano. Both Jeremy Ross (guitar, vocals) and Cilla Bonnie (bass, piano, vocals) have won the Lizard Lounge Open Mike Challenge. Joined by drummer Chris DeSanty, they scarcely had time to practice together before this first gig at the Limelight.

Now I had not been to the Limelight before and I had no idea what to expect. It is a karaoke club with a pretty serious twist. The twist is they take it seriously. You can get private rooms and even have your performances recorded. This performance was on the main stage to your right as you enter. Down the center of the club there is a hallway that leads to a bar, more private rooms and the bathrooms. I found the staff to be very laid back and cordial.

Jeremy Ross and Cilla Bonnie have both been playing at the Lizard Lounge a lot this year and together they’ve played the All Asia, the Midway Cafe and others. After hearing them at the Lizard Lounge, I was interested to see what the full line up of January Broke would sound like.

January Broke: Jeremy Ross, Chris DeSanty and Cilla Bonnie

One thing that interfered with my ability to shoot the performance was the lack of light on Jeremy. Cilla was right under a spotlight and well lit. Jeremy was in the dark. So I had to get creative. Still, there was enough light to catch Jeremy early in the show here. Jeremy was full of energy. He is a fearless performer – throwing himself into the music and lyrics, even playing harmonica for one number. He writes songs about every day situations, sometimes straying into deeper territory, but usually well grounded in love and life. There is often something of a narrative in his songs and it works well with his voice.

We heard a lot of Jeremy’s music. He’s very active on stage but still has a casual, warm style. I’m pretty sure I heard at least one of Cilla’s songs as well. And there were a bunch of people that came to watch it. From what I could tell, they liked what they heard, even those who hadn’t come specifically to see January Broke. It was a pretty impressive show given how new this line-up is. By the second song, they were pretty tight and just rolled on through the performance from there. I did think the room seemed very bright, acoustically speaking; I had to acclimate to it a bit.

Jeremy’s been playing around the area for a solid six months now. After losing his job last December, he started busking full time. He was written up in the Globe recently in a story about the folks who perform in the T. But this show proved he had both the material and energy for a full set with a full band. One nice thing about January Broke is that with Jeremy exclusively on acoustic guitar, you can really hear all the performers well. Cilla’s bass is obviously a major part of the overall sound and DeSanty’s drumming ties it all together. Although I think Jeremy is an excellent solo performer, laying with Cilla and Chris fills out his songs in a very compelling way.

Towards the end of the set, I noticed that Jeremy has broken a string on his guitar, the G, I believe. So he hopped down of the stage and quickly got busy changing the string. In the mean time, Cilla goes from noodling the bass to just walking it around, musically speaking. And Chris came in with the drums and there was this nice rhythm to the whole thing. When they stopped playing, there was a round of applause and then Jeremy was back up and ready to tune up. There was enough time for one more song, in this case, a nice long one.