Live Review: Patrick James, Ben Whiting

The Jam Room is no stranger to creating a certain vibe to a live show, and for the second instalment of A Music Warehouse Project it was all great vibes indeed.

The name might sound familiar from such other music event wonders as A Band On A Boat, A Salty Winter and Some Folk In Spring, and tonight was teamed with The Happy Motel crew at their headquarters (AKA the lads involved in Lola’s Pergola and Barrio). What a combo!

In the middle of a side street in the inner CBD you were welcomed by a lovely lass in a deck chair with the light of only a couple of candles set in jars and directed to the small opening through a roller door into the cosy warehouse space. The room was aesthetically pleasing in a DIY way and reeked of Jam Room’s notorious rustic décor styling. The Jam Room director and unofficial music event queen of Adelaide Alice Fraser turned MC for the night first off welcoming Melbourne based artist Ben Whiting to the floor.

For solo acoustic artists, it is always a nice change of pace to see them perform with a band and tonight Whiting had Billie Donaldson and Victor Salamanca joining him on bass guitar and drums. He was able to create a stand still mood in the room and had a great way of using nature in his lyrics executed with fragility, to tell tales of real life thoughts and experiences.

Next act and driving force for the show was Patrick James, currently touring for the release of his new EP Broken Lines. Like-wise to Whiting, the singer-songwriter was joined with a band and included an enjoyable mix of piano and banjo through the set. James proved to be quite the smooth talker with some quick witted banter with his guitarist/banjo player. A mid-set cover of The Church’s Under The Milky Way was pretty special although fulfilling the tease of some Rick Astley would have been entertaining.

James and his band slipped behind the Australian 60’s kitchen looking curtain backdrop, but it didn’t take long for them to reappear and give the crowd the encore they were hoping for. Making his way with band in tow to the middle of the room, surrounded by a politely quiet crowd, James and his band performed an-unplugged Bugs and gave fans a special memory to take home with them.