Josh Rouse

Leigh Nash

Hotel Cafe - August 20, 2006

Live Review by Daniel Brody

At a Hotel Cafe showcase presented by Nettwerk, two singer-songwriters took advantage of the inviting and intimate atmosphere to entertain a bunch of BlackBerry-wielding industry types who occasionally looked up at the stage to see what was happening there.  After a tasty plate of coldcut sandwiches, macaroni salad and potato chips, Leigh Nash took the stage.  You may remember her as the lead singer of Christ-pop band Sixpence None the Richer, who had a hit with “Kiss Me,” the love theme from that totally rad teen movie She’s All That, starring Freddie Prinze Jr.  Funny how the earnest singer-songwriter can find acceptance in the strangest of pop cultural corners.  Leigh wore a bright yellow and blue sundress, and talked about each song before she sang it a la VH1 Storytellers.  The album doesn’t drop until August, but its never too early to get some hype cooking, and the songs themselves were pleasant enough trifles.  Nash has a sweet voice that is a dead ringer for the Sundays’ Harriet Wheeler, but the songs are a little too trite and generic to register. 

Josh Rouse had a bit more to offer.  On his new album, Subtitulo, Rouse recounts the pleasures of living with his gorgeous Spanish girlfriend in a small Spanish town.  The music has the easygoing vibe of Paul Simon, and even though he is only in his mid-thirties the songs have the vibe of a sixty-year-old retiree enjoying his morning cup of coffee, looking back contentedly at a life well-spent.  Rouse first came to prominence as more of a rocker, with the excellent “Direction” from the Vanilla Sky soundtrack, but here he featured a string quartet for the first few songs, and his charming, laid-back demeanor won over the audience.  When the aforementioned girlfriend joined him for his last song, it was domestic bliss of the Yo La Tengo variety.  We should all be so lucky.

And a special final shoutout needs to go to the Hotel Cafe, which is as perfect a venue as I can imagine for up and coming singer-songwriter folkie types.  It feels lived-in and cozy, and anybody from Hollywood hipsters to their grandmas could feel comfortable checking out a show there.  It is worth it to walk there blindly and see what the place has to offer on a random evening.