A.A. Bondy adjusts an amp during his band’s performance at the Hi-Dive on Jan. 28. Photo by Lindsay McWilliams.
has a voice to remember. The singer-songwriter’s vocals fly off the stage like a liberated swan, and it’s easy to just sit there and stare — and listen.
When he and two backing friends played the last week, a solid crowd showed up to support. Oddly the crowd was full of dudes, guys who were obviously there for the music but couldn’t refrain from talking (loudly) throughout the show. From the back of the crowd on the elevated platform to the middle of the crowd, the dudes were talking. And while the unwelcome distractions were were a bummer, you only had to listen a little bit harder to take in the unbridled clarity of Bondy’s voice.
The show was memorable, but “Rapture (Sweet Rapture)” was especially intoxicating. The calming hymn nearly silenced the talky crowd with its soothing-and-sweet melody. Melancholy abounded, but while the clear majority of the set was down-tempo and low-key, Bondy’s sound never got stale. He even broke out what he called a “dance number” toward the end of his set, and sure enough, it got everybody moving a little bit.
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Ricardo Baca is the founder and co-editor of and an award-winning critic and journalist at The Denver Post. He is also the executive director of the , Colorado’s premier indie music festival. Follow his whimsies at , his live music habit at and his iTunes addictions at .
is a Boulder-based photographer and a regular contributor to Reverb.
