Chris Price at The Federal Bar, 3-11-18 Concert Review

Chris Price performing "Peculiar Lake Superior"

The Mimosa Music Series, hosted by Gary Calamar at The Federal Bar in North Hollywood, continued on Sunday with an excellent double bill of Nina Diaz and Chris Price. Nina started the show with a half-hour set featuring mostly music from her 2016 solo album The Beat Is Dead. Then at 12:28 p.m., Chris Price took the stage, with a four-piece band backing him – guitar, bass, keys and drums. We had switched the clocks ahead early that morning (why are we still doing this shit?), and Chris asked if anyone in the audience was from Florida. Apparently, Florida is no longer doing the daylight saving time silliness, or rather is going to remain on daylight saving time. Chris has a new release, Dalmatian, and his set focused on material from that album.

He opened his set with “Sick Boy,” a good pop song, this version delivered with a wonderful energy, and followed that with “Fever Dream,” which featured some nice work on keys, and then “Roller Coaster.” All three of those songs are from the new release. “My tuner died during soundcheck, so I’m doing what’s called ‘Good enough for rock and roll,’” Chris told the audience before starting “Sigh,” a song from his previous release, Stop Talking. He mentioned that he has copies of Stop Talking for sale, but that he doesn’t have any of the new release because it has sold out already. Damn! I still need to get a copy of it. It’s available as a digital download, but I am hoping more physical copies will be pressed.

“Peculiar Lake Superior” is one of my favorites of the new material. I loved it immediately, its title an indication of its sense of joy and play. He followed that with “Stop Talking,” another of the set’s highlights. Chris Price did his own fade-out at the end, “Gotta cut to the chase, gotta cut to the chase.” Then, in introducing “Breakfast Cruise,” he said, “It’s relevant to where we are, because it’s about breakfast.” For those who haven’t been to one of the Mimosa Music Series concerts, they start early enough in the day (doors open at 11 a.m.) that you can order breakfast. I almost always get the bread basket, which includes muffins and banana bread, and is delicious. And I’ve developed a taste for mimosas over the last several concerts that I’ve attended (when I first went, I couldn’t stand them; I am not a fan of champagne).

Chris Price switched to the keyboard for “Man Down,” a tune from Stop Talking, and then went back to the acoustic guitar for “I’ll Follow Her Anywhere.” He concluded the set with “Discount Love.” The show ended at 1:06 p.m. For some reason, the show this time was, or at least felt, shorter than other concerts I’ve seen in this series.

Set List

1. Sick Boy
2. Fever Dream
3. Roller Coaster
4. Sigh
5. Peculiar Lake Superior
6. Stop Talking
7. Breakfast Cruise
8. Man Down
9. I’ll Follow Her Anywhere
10. Discount Love

Here are a few photos from his set:

"Sick Boy"

"Sick Boy"

"Fever Dream"

"Man Down"

The Federal Bar is located at 5303 Lankershim Blvd. in North Hollywood, California.