2008 Woodie Awards
Pete Francis dispatches acoustic ambience
A sold-out show at afterHOURS featured three singer-songwriters.
Daniel Stoller
Issue date: 11/15/07 Section: The Inside
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The show, headlined by Pete Francis, the former guitarist/bassist of Dispatch, and opened by Alex Brumel and Eric Hutchinson, filled afterHOURS to its 275-person capacity, said afterHOURS employee Ben Gram, a middler music major.
Gram, who checked IDs and monitored the number of people in the venue, said capacity was reached with a total of 400 people coming in and out around 8 p.m., when the doors were opened.
"It's good [for afterHOURS] to have a show that is a draw," Gram said. "It was a larger show than normal."
Shortly after 10 p.m., Francis and lead guitarist Boo Reiners took the stage and the crowd pushed forward. From the first song, the audience was energetic, dancing and singing along.
During his hour and a half long set, Francis played the songs he released during his solo career, as well as songs off his new album, Everything Is One.
An encore was sparked by the majority of the crowd chanting, "One more song," until Francis and Reiners returned to the stage, with Francis shaking hands with those in the front row.
"It was a great show. We love playing college shows," he said. "There was a certain energy from the start of the show … people were very attentive."
Brumel, a singer-songwriter who played solo with an acoustic guitar, opened with the song "Midnight." Fairly stationary on stage, Brumel performed to a quiet audience.
The moments where his music was softer were often punctuated by audience members talking among themselves, with one student yelling, "When is Pete coming on?"
Eric Hutchinson, a former Emerson College student, played most of his show at a piano and the remainder playing acoustic guitar. He also had a bassist, who stood behind the stage, where Hutchinson sang.
Hutchinson peppered his show with humor, at one point asking how many of the concert-goers were "on pot brownies."
After the audience rhythmically clapped during a song, he thanked those in attendance for, "[saving] us all a lot on a drummer by doing that."
Hutchinson, who had played a couple of shows with Francis before last night, said he was pleased with the turnout and the dynamics of the audience.
"It was a good audience," he said. "You never know what you're going to get [on a college campus]. … People were there to listen."
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