The Women of Robot Holiday at Larkin Square July 31

(Most of) The Women of Robot Holiday, accompanied by some bunch of guys they found at the last minute to play at Larkin Square. Does anyone here buy off the rack? Photo by Val Dunne/Barkloud Productions

        It may have been the perfect night for a show at Larkin Square, with the weather sunny and in the low-70-degree range, Amy’s Truck serving dinner and me off of work/political volunteering for an evening. But what made it even better was the performance of The Women of Robot Holiday (and backing musicians).

        Robot Holiday, the brainchild of bassist, producer, songwriter and too-funny-for-his-own-good guy Jonathan Hughes and friends, has been recording and releasing new, original holiday music for several years, and playing shows at The Sportsmen’s Tavern and Larkin Square in particular for the last few holiday seasons. With all of the talented musicians involved, happily someone or several people came up with the idea of displaying this talent besides during the holidays, and featuring the many female musicians was a very smart move.

        The show featured Dee Adams on vocals and guitar, Cathy Carfagna on keyboards, vocals and guitar, Alex Lynne on guitar and vocals, Joelle Labert on vocals and Katy Miner on vocals, all singing lead and backing roles. If you had heard any one of these musicians before, you’d know this would be a fun show, but blending all of this talent with the added backing of Jim Whitford on guitar, Hughes on bass and Rob Lynch on drums should have told you that this was a show not to miss.

        The show began with a really good sultry, funky and lusty number by Adams, which grabbed attention, and Labert added her rootsy, yearning lead vocals to the next tune. Miner, the only Robot Holiday woman performing I had not witnessed in her solo act before, contributed a fine, low, slinky funk song, aided nicely by Carfagna’s keyboards and Hughes’ bass. Carfagna then took center stage with a funky rocking version of “Tumble Down,” a song she recorded on her “Turn Your Face to the Sun” CD as well as with one of the bands she plays with, The Outlyers. 

           Lynne then sang a county and western flavored song with some real nice guitar interplay with Whitford possibly entitled "If I Were Lucky," where she is missing that special person; Adams followed with a chiming pop rocker, "Coming in for a Landing," where she seems to be seeing where things will lead. Labert and the women then sang a real nice C&W song with Carfagna supplying on-the-mark accordion, and Miner contributed "The Best of Me," slower and a bit dreamy. Carfagna then sang "Turn Your Face to the Sun," which sounded even better vocally here than on the CD due to the Women of Robot Holiday.

          

Cathy Carfagna singing, playing accordion and avoiding a snarky caption.
Photo by Val Dunne/Barkloud Productions

               I wish I caught the title of the next song, sung by Adams, which was a slower, smoky, bluesy country number with Carfagna's accordion and a good Whitford solo near the end standing out; Lynne continued the feel with a sinister, brooding cover of "Jolene" she recorded as part of Opaline with Hughes and guitarist, singer and songwriter David Mussen (who is also a big part of Robot Holiday).

               The evening came to an end with four more songs, a very danceable tune sung by Miner (with serious funky bass from Hughes and a disco guitar line from Whitford), Labert singing a cover of David Meinzer's "Right There in Your Eyes," Carfagna appropriately performing "Last Day in July," Adams and Lynne dueting on Michael Oliver's "Tell Me What You're Dreaming" and Adams then singing lead on the finale, a cover of "Hard Candy Christmas" from "Best Little Whorehouse in Texas," which has been performed at previous Robot Holiday shows.

             Also deserving credit is Seamus Gallivan, who MCed the show and has been one of the contributing factors to the high quality of musical programming at Larkin Square and helping gain further support for the Robot Holiday cause, which again benefited the Food Bank of Western New York.