JT and the Clouds

In the spirit of "no show is too small," I thought I would fill Claptrappers in on a recent 8/27/2009 show of JT and the Clouds at the Empty Bottle with Moxie Motive and the Blueheels opening. The Blueheels (a Madison, WI based band) opened with a strong set to a fairly empty bar. Instrumentally the band was spot on, but the lead singer failed to provide any decent support vocally. Moxie Motive was preceded by a verse from Thax Douglas who we convinced to check out JT. As the crowd started to fill in and the Beam shots and Old Styles (due to the special of the night) started to flow, Moxie put on a terrific set. Though a small stage, the lead singer made terrific use of each spare inch, dancing, throbbing, and knocking into his string section. Moxie is a band that I would like to see more of in the future.

Coming into the JT and the Clouds set, I was expecting to hear more of their last soulful album "The City's Hot, Yeah the City's Hot" as opposed to their first album "Delilah"which tends to be more alt-county/folk rock. I was surprised to hear mostly new stuff from an upcoming album due out in November. Overall, the music was still a lot of soul and very upbeat, and the band had the crowd dancing. Though only hearing 3 songs that I knew (Lover's Prayer, Wildin' Blues, and Clouds Ain't Heavy), I will stell very pleased with the songs (could have been the Beam and Oldstyle's).

Keep an eye out for this band as they play in Chicago pretty often. You may also see them listed under the lead singer JT Nero and possibly performing with Po' Girl. For now, they are a lot of fun to see for tickets as low as $10. As they pick up on their touring and become more Bit Torrent popular, I expect them to become a harder show to see in the coming years.