Rocky Votolato

Featuring Dave Hause & Chriss Farren

August 20th 2015 | The Casbah

Hot off the tail of his most recent effort Hopsital Handshakes, indie folk rocker Rocky Votolato & friends Dave Hause of The Loved Ones & Chris Farren of Fake Problems take to the road for a short stripped down tour. Hause and Farren utilizing some back up on electric guitar and keys while Rocky went straight solo acoustic. The feels. The feels everywhere.

Rocky Votolato

I had never seen Rocky perform before and only recently found out about him from his latest release through No Sleep Records. I then went and immediately discovered his impressive backlog of music. You know what you’re getting with Rocky ahead of time the type of well written rock ballads you used to listen to on the radio as a kid. Sliding in the harmonica from time to time accompany himself, Rocky effortlessly layed down a dozen or so tunes. A powerful performance that I know at least had me throw some Rocky Votolato on my current playlist.

Dave Hause

Also being totally unfamiliar with Hause’s music outside of some casual The Loved Ones exposure, I wasn’t really sure what to expect from his solo act. It was a lot more mellow than I expected, along side his younger brother on keys and guitar, Hause channeling a depressed Bruce Springsteen captured the crowd immediately.

Chris Farren

Chris was the only artist on this bill I was aware of before the show, from being in Fake Problems (“kinda sorta” according to Farren jokingly during the set.) So I new some of the songs ahead of time which always makes the show more fun. He was a great fit to open the show and really broke the ice with the crowd.