Music: Ditty Bops

On Friday I went to a great venue in Berkeley call Freight & Salvage. The name comes from the business that was there before, a salvage yard, but that was about 40 years ago. It’s a totally cool, non-profit, coffee house and music venue. With room for about 400, it’s an intimate place.

There were definitely 400 people there for the second night of the Ditty Bops’ sold out visit. I was introduced to the Ditty Bops by my friend Staci a few years ago as her favorite band. After seeing them live, I’m headed towards that camp. Playing mostly acoustic instruments the two main girls and a couple of their friends played a show like few that I’ve been to. My ideal show goes about like this: sit down, reasonable volume (no ear plugs required), intermission instead of an encore, and small. I guess this sounds a bit like the symphony, but who to say they got it wrong? This one hit all those points. They even said on their second to the last song that it was the last one, and that they wouldn’t be leaving the stage, but that they would play an encore.

Anyway, I found a seat about 3 rows from the front where I could soak in all great tunes. With a single microphone (and pickups for the instruments) there was no place to hide. Their talent was astounding. Singing in multipart harmonies and playing stringed instruments I haven’t seen before, they definitely are at the top of their game.

They are definitely a quirky bunch. For a tour a couple of years ago they decided to take bikes on their next tour, from LA to New York. They didn’t just put them on their bus, they rode them across the country. Their new album is the first pop-up cd I’ve ever seen. Just like a pop-up kids book, the front cover has a slide down panel and the inside contains a ship that moves when you open it. Even the track list on the back is given special treatment. Only one song at a time show up in a little window in a cloud as part of a rotating list.

For some reason the video I uploaded doesn’t want to play, click the link below to view it.
Ditty Bops in Berkely

Read More Here:
http://www.thedittybops.com/

Watch More Here:
http://www.youtube.com/v/i4-LnHr34Lk
http://www.youtube.com/v/qkEaDXpqF4U