Secondhand Serenade @ The Webster Underground

Last weekend Tracey, Lina and I went to see Secondhand Serenade live at The Webster Underground and had a blast. Though I was sick and probably shouldn’t have gone in the first place, there was no way I’d miss that show for the world. Tracey and Lina also really enjoyed the show and hope that we can have a repeat experience whenever Secondhand Serenade next goes on tour.

Who’s Secondhand Serenade?

I’ve been listening to Secondhand Serenade for about a year now – since about the release of their debut album, Awake. Having completely fallen in love with them listening to samples online, Lina went about buying their album for me. What I didn’t know at the time was that Secondhand Serenade wasn’t really a full band at all, rather only a one-man-show. John Vesely apparently rented out a studio one day, sick of waiting for a label to pick him up, and cut his own album, layering himself over himself as many times as necessary to complete his songs as he saw fit. Even the album artwork was his; the concept that the entire artistic creation is his and his alone is definitely something I can get behind. Lina had to buy the album online personally from him via his MySpace page. It worked something like this: she sends him the cash via PayPal along with an address, and he ships it out. Now that’s underground.

Since Tracey listens to my music a lot when we both happen to be online and listening to music at the same time, she was introduced to Secondhand Serenade pretty early on as well, and took to it almost as quickly as I did. The fact that John Vesely has a voice to die for certainly piqued Lina’s interest, and when I heard that he had been signed and would be in the area on tour, I almost immediately booked tickets for the three of us.

The Venue

When I found out that Secondhand Serenade would be playing at The Webster Underground, I was pretty stoked. I’d heard great things about the venue, and I have no problem saying that it lived up to my expectations and then some. A cozy little establishment in less than the nicest part of Hartford, The Webster Underground probably couldn’t fit more than two hundred even if packed to the brim and out the door. They have a bar area separate from the stage with a single pool table and only a few bar stools. I definitely loved the minimal-security open-air atmosphere that the whole place had about it. The show was only in medium attendance that night, with maybe a hundred people in the room at best. Including staff and band members.

Probably the coolest part about the venue was the complete lack of security between the audience and the stage; performers entered and exited from the front of the stage, and one of the performers even crowd-surfed during his own performance – definitely something I hadn’t seen before. The second coolest part? The picture at left – that’s us with John Vesely hanging out before the show. That’s right, we got to meet the performers. Just like that.

The Show

Opening for Secondhand Serenade (neglecting a mediocre-at-best local band) we had wonderful performances by Automatic Loveletter, The White Tie Affair, and Making April. I was particularly shocked with how spot-on the vocals of The White Tie Affair were, totally having expected a good sound engineer rather than natural vocal talent when I heard their demos online. I’m definitely looking forward to their upcoming album release.

By the time Secondhand Serenade came on, I really got the feel that these four bands had formed a cohesive unit over the duration of their tour together. At a couple of points through the show, lead singer from one band stepped right on stage while another band was performing and finished the song with them. I thought it was pretty cool to see that much comfort between bands, as I know that often bands go on tour together and develop rivalries.

Needless to say, Tracey, Lina and I were all impressed with John Vesely’s Performance. There’s no doubt that he has natural talent, and he definitely shows it live.