Electrified Purple Jello

The Dugout's Coming of Age Party

Keith Kenny/ Christina Kelly - Todd's Dugout and Sports Cafe, South Amboy, NJ, Nov. 22, 2006

Local singer/ songwriter Christina Kelly opened the evening's festivities with
originals (her writing is creative and powerful) and cover songs ("Creep" was give a fresh reading with Christina's big, open vocals, as compared to STP's softer approach. Keith Free joined Christina for a couple of numbers, which added momentum and the dual guitars made for a deeper, acoustic sound.

Her half-hour set was full of songs that ranged from light and airy, to outright frustration, which is not easily balanced, but Christina rose to the challenge. She has a straightforward approach to music in the vein of Lucinda Williams or Ani DeFranco. The more she gigs, the better she's going to get!

If you asked me to describe what Keith Kenny's music would look like, as compared to what it would sound like, I would have to say, JELLO! Cherry, no, purple. PURPLE JELLO! ELECTRICFIED PURPLE JELLO! His music is somewhere between a solid and a liquid, and but it's definitely a gas! The music he squeezed out from his guitar shimmied, shaked, and was reshaped until you felt like you saw colors (Electrified Purple Jell-O! Not the sugar free stuff, you're gonna need a lot of energy to keep up)!

After cleaning out the speakers with some reverbified loops and swoops on his guitar, he slowly drifted into a cover of AC/DC's "TNT Dynamite," that started the crowd chanting "Oi!, Oi!, Oi!" He played most of the songs from his recent album (check it out at www.keithkenny.com), of which a few were stripped-down acoustic howlers, where Keith's vocals and his guitar melded as one.

His hour-long, tireless set was studied artiness, mingling with youthful exuberance and creeping blues. "A Roxbury Tale" about a friend of his who had died, and "Metal Band" which was tongue-in-cheek funny, were mingled with a new song which he premiered at the Dugout, called "Unheard." The tune stretched the boundaries of music, and if you closed your eyes, you could hear 100 years of the blues pouring out of this 22 year-old's guitar. (Keith was also nominated this year for the Asbury Music Awards, and also opened the awards show.)

His cover of SRV's "Pride and Joy" was over powering. Talk about finding integrity in the groove! The song had a slinky, countrified -funk to it, with demo-like intimacy. Keith broke out an early Christmas present from Mom & Dad (along with the crew they brought to The Dugout, were proud as punch), a banjo, and proceeded to wow the crowd with forceful finesse (he REALLY gave that banjo a workout). Who would have thought you could rock out on a banjo (I'd like to see what he could do with a ukulele)!

This is the second time I've seen Keith at Todd's Dugout Sports Cafe. In September he did a charity fund raiser for The Sayreville BIC Assoc. (Todds' also donated the proceeds from the Halloween show they did in October to BIC), with among others, The Ergs, If Six Was Nine, and John Eddie. Again, I've got to thank Miss Madison for sharing her passion, and high praise for Keith's music. She was missed as M/C for the show, as her perky exuberance is always so infectious.

This night like in the past, Todds' crew was friendly and professional. Since opening in May they've put on a few dozen shows, and the dedication of Todd and his crew just keeps getting better. They recently started a record label (Jerseyshorerecords.com), and have some interesting plans for expanding the club musically.

Along with Buddies in Sayreville, and a few other clubs, the South Amboy/ Sayreville area is becoming a very cool alternative music scene! From the start of his solo set, Keith had the home-grown crowd at "Hello" (actually, he worked his butt off) playing in front of his family and friends. As The Keith Kenny Band started to warm up, everyone gravitate to the front of the stage. Wringing out long, black cat moans, and some no-frills feedback, the band churned out an instrumental just to get everyone in the mood. The band (Jonathan Luberecki- bass, and Tyler Chiara- drums and Keith Kenny- guitar), did a slow bluesy meltdown on a new number called "Trust Me." Easy going and fun, the song had an "Endless Boogie" vibe to it. The cover of Sabbath's "War Pigs" morphed the band into a powerhouse trio somewhere between The John Mayer Trio and Crazy Horse. Mixing originals with covers (these cats should put out a live disc), they played with the fierceness of a garage band that had just learned how to play REAL GOOD! Jukebox R&B, with a blues-driven, psychedelic liftoff. With the band's mojo in full force, they turned their cover of Hendrix's
"Voodoo Child (Slight Return)" into a massive, musical freak-out! You know, lots of bands cover SRV, Hendrix, etc., every night (nobody, I mean NOBODY, can do it like Hendrix did), but if you pour your heart and soul into a song like they did on "Voodoo Child," it's going to bring out the spirit of the song, fleshing out something special that the band and the audience vibe-out on together! It's like a musicgasm!

After more than an hour of playing they were coaxed back on stage for a few encores. They performed a heavy-duty rockin' blues number that took everyone into the Thanksgiving Holidays. It was an untitled work-in-progress with a bouncy groove, and the natural glow of a house-party jam!

Yeah! Electrified, Purple Jell-O!

- Phil Rainone