Flanfire

Twas a Triple A evening - Amber, Ann Marie, and Adrian - and all three women got A-plusses for their performances at the Hole in the Wall - one of dozens of Austin venues that will now have to go smokeless as of September 1 (or else tear out the roof on the back half of the building and turn it into a patio). All of this after spending part of the afternoon at North Austin's Violet Crown Festival and catching a wonderful acoustic set by Patrice Pike.

Patrice, for the record, braved an imperfect sound system and threatening (but still dry) clouds and winds that seemed to add their own voice to her music. Iy may have felt like "Sweet November" for the "Jackknife Girl" given that temperatures were not springlike but more like autumn in Austin. My friend Sharon Dawkins has long told me that Patrice may even be better solo than with her very hot band, and now I know why. Solo, you get her clear, strong voice and better yet get up close with her gentle love even for those who upset her by letting their children wear the Stars and Bars on a T-shirt.

Got to the Hole about ten to find Amber and Love Buckit already on stage. Amber is a friend of my grandson (age 2), and I have known her a year or so, but this was my first chance to hear her melodic keyboards and haunting vocals. Wearing a sleeveless black dress, the diminuitive songbird cast a Rhiannon-like spell over her audience as she sang mostly her own compositions, including "Teardrops," "Oilstain" (which I really liked), "Laughing at You," and "Interstate." Sometimes she put on a few Freddie Mercury-type moves as her voice soared into the stratosphere, other times she was Bjork-like - but in the final analysis, the girl showed us she's all American rocker, singing loud and rough behind only her bassist Jimbo and drummer Sol (both of whom laid down a lot of good notes behind her all night long). Amber says she wants to take some time to regroup (every band member just got through moving) and write some new songs - but her fans would probably prefer that she just find bigger and better gigs so they can hear more of what she is already doing. In this guitar-crazy town, a band without a guitar is a rare thing - a breath of fresh air. Amber reminds me of a young Carolyn Wonderland in the sense that she always seems amazed that anyone likes what she is doing (even though it is so good and so much from deep down inside her soul).

What more can I say about Ann Marie and Cloud 8 than has already been said? Jackson is becoming a rock guitar god on stage - Ann Marie is Ann Marie - and Chris Stelly is learning what he needs to do as the drummer in a band that one old-timer said reminds him so much of The Doors (but with light at the end of the tunnel). A new song - Too Much - was just that, with lyrics that included "I just want my heart to sing, my soul to dance - Is that too much?" Ann Marie (Harrop, by the way) is shining her light into the darkness and urging others to wake up and live amazingly full lives.

Adrian Conner and the Sickness (Heather Webb and Ric Furley) topped off the evening with their genuine old fashioned rock and roll. The highlight of their set was Adrian remembering a recent gig in which they played for 19 and 20 year olds and the other "band" there was a rap group from Dallas that only brought their CD and "sang(?)" to the recorded music - not, mind you, a soundtrack, but the actual CD, so that the guys continued rapping on the record even if they quit rapping on stage. Strange as it seems, Adrian lamented that these kids actually liked the rappers better than real live rock and roll - a music that seemed foreign to them. Music that was brand new to "her generation" that grew up only a decade ago. More than one guy in the audience was absolutely stunned that a woman (girl, one said) was playing "Little Wing" so well (even after a shot or three).

Three three-piece bands -- three women who are all friends -- and three completely different sounds -- all made for one fun evening.