The Liza Colby Sound and The Sweet Things played the last show of their Dirty Sweet Sound Tour part deux tour Oct. 29 night at DC’s Slash Run, a dive bar extraordinaire, dedicated to bourbon, beer, burgers…AND rock ‘n’ roll. Both bands, products of New York City’s Lower East Side, ed the forces of rock and soul in an explosive down and dirty homage to their musical roots, ranging from punk to garage band grit.
Liza Colby, the dynamic center of the Dirty Sweet Sound universe, is star power incarnate. She is the type of performer who has you the moment she steps into the room, even before she graces the stage. She exudes the “thing” that defines an ‘It Girl.’ This particular It Girl has a voice that was gifted to perform.
Equal parts Janis Joplin, Tina Turner and Iggy Pop, yet entirely her own tangle of sultry vulnerability, heartache and guts, Liza owned the evening. She also captured the mesmerized audience, lucky enough to experience her visceral, responsive, love affair with rock n’ roll.
“Our groove becomes a flow state. At this point we’ve been playing together for so long that now we can wear our music, even our new songs like a loose garment. This all …………turns our live performances into a sexy, gritty, wild high energy show,” Liza explains.
AND, indeed, one can feel the ecstatic state she describes in both the interface between The Sweet Things’ band ─ Dave Tierney (Guitar), Lorne Behrman (Guitar), Sam Haris (Bass), Darren Fried (Drums) — and between The Liza Colby Sound’s talented trio ─ Alec Morton (Bass), Charly Roth (Drums), Tom McCaffrey (Guitar). The two bands also prove to be a powerful complement for each other, a seamless segue from dirty to sweet and back again.
In addition, The Sweet Things maintain a refreshing commitment to an urban irreverence (their Facebook bio includes as their personal interests: pills, ball gags, Yiddish, alcohol and Eva Braun’s unmentionables). My favorite song of their set, I Want Cocaine, further establishes The Sweet Things as serious rockers who do not take themselves too seriously.
Catch The Liza Colby Sound to experience the bright light of a true star.
Leanne Tankel studied poetry writing as a UC Berkeley undergraduate and was fortunate enough to work with the inimitable Thom Gunn. She earned her M.A. in Creative Writing at Boston University, where she held a teaching fellowship. Currently, she is writing prose, and her manuscript, Broken Hallelujah: notes from a marriage, was a 2011 short-list finalist for the Santa Fe Literary Awards program. Leanne lives with her husband, three sons, and two pugs in Northern Virginia.
