June 28, 2010 | Posted By: Liem Nguyen

Untitled photo

This show is the 3rd time that I've been to Jammin Java for shows.  The first time was for Marié Digby, my all time favorite artist, back in November of 2009. The second time was for Kina Grannis, my second all-time favorite artist, which was just a few weeks ago.  This time, on June 28th, I came to Jammin Java see Mikey Wax perform live, who's from NY. Also opening for Mikey Wax were Rachel Platten and Nick Howard, who are also both from NY. 

 

I only found out about Mikey Wax's songs earlier this month and that's because @MikeyWaxTour randomly followed me on Twitter saying he is performing at Jammin Java.  Interested to see what this artist has to offer, I decided to do some research and found his YouTube.  I quickly was interested in his music after hearing his cover for "Unchained Melody", as well as "in Case I Come Again", and "Birmingham". I then found his official website and he was allowing free downloads for his newest album, "The Traveler". His album is also really good.  He has a touch of James Blunt and Daniel Powder. Of all his songs from that album, "California Skies" is my favorite and currently the intro of the song is my ringtone :). I then went ahead and bought his older albums after previewing it on iTunes. Another great indie artist.

 

Once I booked tickets for me and my sister earlier this month to go watch Mikey Wax, we decided to research on Rachel Platten and Nick Howard to see what kind of artist they are and if they were as good as the headlining artist.  We went to their MySpace pages and thought they were good too. So we were pretty excited to go see these three perform live.

 

Since the show was not sold out like Kina Grannis' a few weeks ago, I decided to go to work an hour early and leave an hour early by 4:30pm to get dinner beforehand instead of taking half a day off of work.  My sister and I decided to go eat at Chipotle for dinner which was real close to Jammin Java. We chilled there until about 7pm.. an hour before the show started.

 

Once we got to Jammin Java, we checked in and got our hand stamped. It was still a bit early, so the lady told us to have a seat and hang out before they opened the stage for the show. So my sister and I sat down, and we were checking our BlackBerry phones. My sister then hunched over and whispered, "Liem, is that guy sitting back of you Mikey Wax?" I slowly turned around and still a bit unsure, pulled out my iPod Touch out and check the cover album to compare (lame i know, and I know Mikey is going to laugh at this), and I said YES it is him. Both of us were too shy to say anything, so I decided to Tweet to him saying I was sitting next to him and hope he sings "California Skies".  It was too late and he closed his laptop. As he made his wade away from the front of the venue, he accidently tripped over an electric cord and drops his salad he was eating and I think he almost hit me according to my sister haha (but he didn't).

 

While we were waiting for the venue to let us in to get to our seats, My sister and I overhear Nick and Rachel sing "Soul Sister".  That's both of our favorite songs and now expecting to hear them sing that song lol.

 

So it's closer to the start of the show and the venue let's us through to get to our seats. The seating is much more different than how it was set for Marié's and Kina's shows.  They had two rows of tables with chairs with a candle in the middle of the table.  It had a Jazzy venue feel to it.  I like it. We got front row seats, so we definitely got seats for any pictures and videos I decide to take.  This time, I only took video clips instead of pictures. I also didn't record every song. I picked a few songs I recorded and will link them below.

 

So the show started about 8:20pm or so....

 

First up was Nick Howard. He came out with his guitar and performed the following songs. He sang songs from both is his "Building the Gap" and "Something to Talk About" albums as well as covers. And ended his set list with a couple of collaborations with Rachel Platten.

 

 

Once Nick and Rachel finished off their medley, Rachel Platten herself takes the stage and performs her set list of songs. I currently didn't get a chance to get any video clips of Rachel performing, but she does have some of her songs up on her MySpace.

 

 

Last and but not least, Mikey Wax finally comes onto stage to perform his songs from his set list to end off for the night. He performed songs from his old and new albums such as "Change Again", "For Better or Worse - EP", and "The Traveler".

 

 

Below are video clips from the show.

Nick Howard & Rachel Platten [Part 1]

Mikey Wax [Part 2]

Show Highlights

  • "Hey Soul Sister" cover with Nick and Rachel. It was very cleaver how they had that song mashed up with "Over the Rainbow".  I really enjoyed it. It is also one of my favorite songs.

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  • "A Better Man"  by Nick. It is his million dollar single, so why not be a highlight :). You can also get this song for free from his MySpace page by clicking here.

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  • "California Skies" by Mikey. This is my most favorite song out of his new album, "The Traveler".  This album can also be downloaded completely free from his website by clicking here. I actually tweeted Mikey a few times to request time to sing this song, but didn't get a response.  I thought he didn't see my tweet or ignored it, but said by request, he was going to sing it.  He made me leave the show really happy :).

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  • Craig (The Drummer). He was absolutely entertaining as the drummer, and I do not mean any respect, but puts all his emotions into drumming and it shows. I had a few giggles throughout the show because he showed a lot of emotion and got into his into his own little world drumming. He was awesome!

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Not a lot of people showed up. I'd say less than dozen people. Even though just a handful of people came out, the artists gave it their all and had a great show.  So check out these artists and you never know you might be like me and be interested in their music!

 

Special thanks to Nick Howard, Rachel Platten, and Mikey Wax for responding to my tweets requesting for their set lists for the VA show :).

 

If you'd like to read up on more shows and see more pictures and videos I've taken at live shows, please be sure to visit http://shows.LiemPhoto.com.

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