L.A. Beat

It was laid back singer-songwriter night at the Slice, April 12. And surprisingly, especially for a dreary Monday night, an almost full house cheered on Peter Katz, Matthew Barber and Sheena Grobb, a late addition to the bill.
Grobb was a definite highlight, with her gorgeous Chantal Krevizuk meets Sarah McLachlan  with a touch of Fiona Apple voice. She only played three songs, but showed a lot of musical diversity, not to mention vocal range on them,  accompanying herself on piano, guitar and a cute pink harp.
 She talked of celebrating her 26th birthday in the United Kingdom then gave up the stage to Peter Katz who drew huge cheers from an attentive audience who were hanging on every word. He looked a bit shocked by all of the cheering, and shared stories about his songs and jokes about  Justin Bieber.
He displayed a more of a folk/ pop style of singing and his crystal clear tenor voice  was reminiscent of Rob Szabo.
The one I wanted to see was Torontonian Matthew Barber, who has a great new CD out called  “True Believer’. While I wanted to hear his minor hit from a few years ago called ‘Soft one,’ I was denied, unless he played it first. But was pleased to hear him playing a more up-beat, more country influenced set than Katz.
He played a couple of my favourites form the new CD  ‘Insanity or Death,’ and ‘Hawks on the Highway’ which just cried out for a drummer.
 In fact his whole set would have been enhanced by a rhythm section, but her pulled it off solo, sang one song a cappella and got the sedate crowd to clap along with it. I’ve never seen a Slice audience so attentive at a gig before.
 He played a mournful song and a harmonica solo on the Slice’s piano, then grabbed his guitar for the rest and even whistled out a solo in between telling stories.