Words and Photos by Jose Serrato
Olivia Jean kicked off the second leg of her US tour on Thursday night in support of her third solo album, Raving Ghost, at The Cambridge Room inside of House of Blues in Dallas. Released by Third Man Records in early May, Jean’s new album comes with 11 tracks that weave in and out of garage and psychedelic rock with punches of punk. Everything that makes for a great album but an even better live show.
With a comedy show happening in the main room of HOB, I walked up to the venue to see two completely different audiences coming together to enter the main doors. The Cambridge Room is an intimate room that makes for a great connection between the band and their fans. Jean made her way onto the stage with a big smile as she was greeted with cheers from fans who were ready for what would end up being a memorable show. With guitarist/keyboardist Marco Argiro, bassist Rica Slaughter and drummer Marcus Powell, Olivia Jean went into a set that lasted a little over an hour that consisted of mainly tracks from the new album, but still threw in a few older tracks. “Enya Rocks!” said Marco after performing the cover ‘Orinoco Flow’ by Enya. “They do now,” replied a fan.
“This song is called Shut Your Mouth, but you don’t have to shut your mouth. We don’t want you to shut your mouth,” Jean joked with the crowd before diving into said song. The band seemed excited to be back on the road as those that had a mic made comments to interact with the crowd throughout the night. As the band walked off stage after their “last song” of the night, Slaughter remained on stage enticing the crowd to make more noise. Walking across the stage with her arms crossed waiting for the cheers to be sufficiently loud enough to earn the encore. The crowd managed to reach her standard and the band came back out for a couple more songs. After a quick stop at the merch table, I was back out on the Dallas streets wondering if I could manage to drive down to Austin and catch another show. I wasn’t able to, but I’m hoping Olivia and crew make their way back to Texas sooner than later.
Photos below
