The loud and enthusiastic audience reaction to Kevin Morby’s performance in Brooklyn should be viewed as validation of what’s been a hard-working sixteen month stretch of near-steady road-testing of two albums worth of material.

Baby’s All Right was packed late Sunday night and it wasn’t one of those crowds that was there to see somebody else and then go home. They were there primarily to see Morby. They knew the songs and voiced hearty approval when they began and ended. Morby’s confidence has risen for sure (as exhibited during his gyrations on the Amen jam). His hour-long set was a 50-50 mix of the two records. The addition of Meg Duffy alternating between guitar and bass makes this trio the far-and-away best incarnation of Morby’s stage show. Duffy blends in nicely. She adds much to the sound – especially on Parade when she bop-bopped on that vocal harmony – making that special number even more spectacular.

Duffy debuted in Morby’s band two months ago when she played with him at a Time Out NY session and then a gig at Bowery Ballroom. She was with Morby and drummer Justin Sullivan for both the west coast and east coast legs of the tour that ended Sunday night. Duffy is the primary force in the upstate band Hand Habits. She told her fans via Facebook that the chance to play in Morby’s band is s “literal dream come true” and that Hand Habits would go on hiatus for a while.

Morby, Sullivan (and presumably Duffy) head to Europe for a month’s worth of dates covering the second half of May and first half of June. The cornerstone of that tour is a coveted slot at the Primavera Sound Festival in Barcelona. The timing of Morby’s spring Euro-tour also guarantees he will miss Woodsist Fest for the first time in its history.

Dressed in all-white western wear, Morby did the main set’s final two numbers by himself. It appeared the show was over at that point but a ham-handed transition to an encore came when Morby, Duffy and Sullivan burst back into the room. “Is it alright if we do one more?” Morby asked. A few people yelled out for Parade and that’s what we got. Not sure if this was the plan all along but it was a really great rendition of that song.

Midway through the set, a fan complained to Morby about a pink stage light that was shining into the eyes of some audience members. It was quickly dimmed. Later Morby made a short merchandise pitch and quipped that fans could pay to smell his shirt (which he had worn several days in succession). The joke fell flat. “That didn’t go over too well. Carry on,” he said.

Admission (with the Ticketfly “service fee“) was $15.45. Pint glasses of Pacifico were seven bucks.

Among the former Morby bandmates in attendance were Brian Schleyer, Jarvis Taveniere, Jeremy Earl and John Andrews.

Here’s the setlist:

Baby’s All Right – Brooklyn, NY – March 15, 2015

running time: 62 minutes

The Dead They Don’t Come Back
Reign
Sucker in the Void
Harlem River (introduced by Morby as a “Song for New York”)
All of My Life
Motors Runnin
Amen
Miles, Miles, Miles
(Justin and Meg step out through side door to backstage)
My Name
If You Leave and If You Marry
(Kevin steps off and then back on with Justin and Meg)
Parade

After listening obsessively to LVL UP’s body of work the last six months or so, I finally was able to get to one of their shows. The NYC band (yet another outfit to emerge from the Purchase scene) played on a four act bill at Shea Saturday night. I slipped in a nap after the job and got to the venue in time to see the night’s opening band Doubting Thomas Cruise Control.

DTCC had just hit the stage as I arrived and they were great. And loud. Shea often strays from the ascending order of importance concept in putting a night’s music together and Doubting Thomas Cruise Control proved that notion. Frontman Bobby Cardos is a wonderful singer/songwriter. He leads a confident cast that at times can make sounds reminiscent of Richmond Fontaine and The Van Pelt.

The tune “$10 ATM” sounded great as did “N.D.A.” which included a thoroughbred racing reference. Sings Cardos: “I’m content placing bets on horses that could scratch.”

The audience deliberately arrived early to see DTCC and I can see why. I want to see them again for sure.

LVL UP played the night’s second to last slot and they were as solid as I expected based on their recorded output and several clips of live performances on You Tube. LVL UP’s first three songs went around the horn vocally: Dave Benton to Nick Corbo and then over to Mike Caridi who hunches way over when he plays big hooks. Greg Rutkin is a great drummer. He also drummed on Slight’s set just prior to LVL UP.

The rotating nature of vocal responsibilities in LVL UP makes it interesting especially because Benton, Corbo and Caridi all have distinct singing/songwriting styles.

Corbo and Caridi have backed Mitski when available. Corbo’s the regular drummer in Crying.

Admission was eight dollars. 12-ounce cans of cold Bud remain just three bucks. What’s not to like about Shea? The club’s boss Adam Reich was on hand to keep the night on pace. Eric Harm (Wicked Kind and Titus Andronicus) worked the small bar. A live recording of the Lame Drivers played in advance of the LVL UP set. The woman at the door is very nice. I think you have to put Shea in the top three best places to see a band right now.

-Charlie Rose choked badly on his 60 Minutes shot with Larry David. With rare one-on-one access to the comedian, Rose prefaced the piece that aired last Sunday by asking “Who is Larry David?” Rose unfortunately never even scratched the surface of that query. Rose clearly failed to prepare for his subject. It would have helped and probably inspired Rose had he listened to Howard Stern’s recent radio interview with David. Rose sounded dumb when he and David went for a visit to the apartment Larry grew up in. “It’s a million miles from Broadway to Brooklyn,” said Rose who expressed disappointment that a trip down memory lane didn’t elicit emotion from his subject.

-Kind of hard to believe the MTA stuck to its scheduled shutdown of the 7 train between Times Square and Jackson Heights last weekend given Sunday’s popular staging of the St. Pat’s for All parade in Sunnyside. The 7 is what most folks from outside the Queens neighborhood would take to reach the parade. Numerous prominent officials who support the parade called on the MTA to run 7 service for the benefit of the parade but the transportation agency said ridership data from years’ past did not warrant altering the train line’s maintenance schedule.

-If you saw any of Susan Rice’s AIPAC speech on Monday, you’d know the US won’t be party to a nukes deal that doesn‘t keep a tight harness on Iran‘s ambition to build The Bomb. There’s diplomacy at work here. The US under Obama can have Israel’s back AND push for a negotiated halt to Iran’s nukes simultaneously. That’s not completely crazy. And Netanyahu’s distrust is fine, too. But it’s the height of disrespect to John Boehner’s leadership position, the august House chamber and the US presidency for the Speaker to invite Bibi to his lectern without running it by Obama first. The president is justifiably outraged given both the egregious violation of balance of power protocol and the horrible timing of incendiary politically-motivated escalation of rhetoric during delicate peace talks. I blame Boehner way more than Netanyahu. The US looks like a fool to the world for the widely-transmitted images of a packed house chamber of lawmakers from both sides of the aisle giving standing ovations to a scare-mongering underminer. It’s horrible. Not because debate on the subject isn’t warranted. But both the timing and use of the venue threaten to torpedo what was already a longshot effort to gain a diplomatic solution.