Greenville Scene

photo: Daniel McCord

by: Michelle Hannon

Saturday night’s show at Clemson’s Hendrix Student Center was one of the most enjoyable shows I’ve attended in a long while for several reasons. One is that I didn’t have to take a shower when I got home so as not to infect my sheets or my own lungs with the putrid stench of cigarette smoke seeping from my skin and hair. It was nice to see a show where the focus was completely on the music, not distracted by the sale of beer. But that is a luxury that WSBF FM can afford since they are school-funded, (it’s also how the show was free.)

The second reason this show was good was that Austin Webb, the night’s first opener took the stage only 30 minutes later than the promised start time. This is a feat few venues may accommodate (or choose to accomodate.) I had heard good things about this young man, and I could see why once he began playing Freedom That’s Peace. There were obvious positive elements and negative elements to the performance. What is obvious is that this young man (only 18 years old), has a good singing voice and writes lyrics which are better than most I’ve heard from anyone in the songwriter scene in Greenville. That being said, he still needs to work on keeping a steady tempo and singing with sincerity. The latter could be helped by not singing in such a breathy manner. He hesitantly played a song that he claimed he had been working on for months. I believe it was called October and I honestly thought it was the best song of his set.

Plucking and strumming her viola like a guitar, Marla Hansen delivered the most fragile performance of the night. The crowd sat on the floor indian-style like they were listening to story-time instead of a concert. I must say that the crowd was great though. Everyone listened respectfully and excitedly cheered after every song. I particularly enjoyed Marla’s understated personality especially considering the fact that she has performed or played on records by Sufjan Stevens, My Brightest Diamond, The National, Jay-Z, and Kanye West.

It was a pleasure to finally see Denison Witmer after being a fan for several years. His careful, quiet performance was exactly what I would expect from a man who writes a song about his grandmother, knits, and is rocking a sweet cardigan. Although he claimed that his aim was to have the whole crowd asleep by the end of his performance, nothing of the sort was going to happen. He played several favorites from his newest album “Are You A Dreamer” including Little Flowers, California Brown and Blue and Grandma Mary as well as Steven from the newly re-released “Safe Away” and Chestnut Hill from “Philadelphia Songs.” I think he was a bit surprised to find that the crowd was actually littered with fans who requested such oldies as Paper Doll (which he played as his last song of the encore), from “The 80’s EP” of 2001.

I couldn’t ask for more really. The show was not too long nor too short, started at a decent time, was free, and the air was clean. Thank you WSBF for hosting such a fine event.