Local Music Channel Relaunch
6320 San Pablo Ave.
Oakland
Aug. 30, 2024
6320 San Pablo Ave., close by the Berkeley border, is more like a living room than a venue, though the glow of dusk gets lots of access through large storefront windows. Illuminated is a collection of string and keyboard instruments, including a 19th Century baby grand piano, oriental screens, and hanging tapestries, evoking the hippie era, when music and art were elements of collective happiness. On the evening of Aug. 30 the spot attracted a small, friendly, Berkleyish artsy audience and was being shared with the rest of the world by a thoroughly modern array of cameras and computers, set up along one wall and aimed at a performance area in front of a collection of cushioned pews and chairs.
Producer Beth Cloutier termed this event a “relaunch” of her Local Music Channel. She described LMC as “experts in livestreams, virtual venue creation, music video, documentary, live event and video production,” and this live music show as a means of “bring[ing] people together to bond and create long lasting friendships that transcend time.”
Indeed, the first of the program’s three acts, Baz Francis, was a longtime friend of Beth and a founding member of two bands — Magic Eight Ball and Mansion Harlots — as well as a solo artist.
Baz is an emotionally appealing vocalist and songwriter, evocative of LA-based Mike Viola, formerly of the Candy Butchers. Like Viola, Baz switched from keyboard to acoustic or electric guitar, and crafts engaging melody lines. His inclination towards alternate open tunings and the resultant drone effect on guitar (think Joni Mitchell) sweetened his songs, which were backed on bass and drums.
The following act — Griffin Kelly, who goes by the stage name of Super Average — was not strictly musical, but rather a sort of White Berkeley Rapper accompanied by soft soul sounds from a laptop on a stool. I couldn’t always make out Kelly’s words or discern whether or not he was trying to be funny, and he wasn’t consistently in sync with the beat of the music. He seemed to be enjoying his own theatricality, gesticulating broadly, but didn’t connect with the audience as securely as the performers before and after him.
The minimal publicity preceding the show seemed to position Jennifer Greer as the main attraction, promoting a new album, Speaking With Ghosts, and showcasing several of its tracks with this performance, all of them originals. Jennifer’s soprano voice — unaffected, accessible, and light — brings to memory Carole King’s. Like King, she accompanies herself prettily on piano, with emotional clarity and undulating arpeggios. Her ensemble included, but didn’t much feature, bass and drums. More prominent, and sometimes harmonizing with Jennifer, was a charming alto vocalist. The resulting ethos felt like a evival of the Laurel Canyon singer-songwriter era of the 1970s, with artful structuring of piano riffs, melody segments, bridges, and changeups of tempo, heard to good effect on the early recordings of Wendy Waldman. For me, I would have had Jennifer further articulate her solos, maybe work more harmonic modulation into her musical lines.
Following the live performance, a projection screen was pulled down for a viewing of a music video for Jennifer’s song “Tidal Wave”, directed by Beth. Alluringly designed and choreographed, it fit the music and the mood. Beth said she’ll be producing Local Music Channel shows at other venues, and will eventually make video recordings available online at affordable prices.
Check out: https://localmusicchannel.com/
