Nikka Costa

After an exhausting day at Love Fest, I still had one more show to see to round out the busy weekend. Nikka Costa.

I saw her once before at the same venue, The Independent. It had been awhile, but I remembered being so blown away by it, I knew it was a must see... so I bought myself a ticket.

My friend Elena said she wanted to come, so I planned to meet her down there. I walked by the box office to see what time Nikka would go on, and I saw the sold out sign. Doh! It must have sold out in just the past couple of hours. I didn't notice anyone selling tickets outside, so I called her told her the situation and she turned her City Car Share around.

It wasn't long after going inside, though, that I struck up a conversation with a girl who's friends actually had an extra ticket. I made the call to Elena, but she had already checked the car back in... Ugh.

My timing was great though. After only a couple of minutes, Ms. Costa came on and busted out another great show.

Her music is a mix of R&B, funk, and pop music. Her voice reminds me a little of Chaka Khan. Very powerful, yet cute. Her band was superb and had a couple of guitarists, a keyboard player and even a couple of horns. Each band member got his or her time to shine and show everyone their substantial chops. After some initial adjustments with the sound mixing, the show was just phenomenal. It was a shame though that her new albut wouldn't release for another week, so I hadn't gotten a chance to hear some of the music and compare it to the stage arrangements.

I remember wondering after the previous show how come she wasn't more popular. How come she isn't playing in bigger venues. It seemed like a coup to see her in such a small place, yet here she was again a couple years later in the same club.

The Independent tends to be a springboard for good artists. They tend to book only very talented artists that aren't extremely well known. When artists are very good, their popularity is generally bound to increase. So what usually happens is that artists play there once, and then by the time they return to the city again, they have outgrown the venue and graduate to The Fillmore auditorium - the next larger, yet still classy and somewhat intimate venue.

She did mention during her show, however, that she wasn't interested in playing larger and larger venues. She seemed to really enjoy interacting with the audience. She often called on us to be part of the band by clapping a certain pattern or singing a background part - stuff that with a bigger venue, just wouldn't have the same fun factor. She is a true performer and seems to have found her niche and enjoys keeping things real, right at this level.

I hope she does. I'll buy a ticket to her show any time she plays here, as long as it doesn't go bigger than The Fillmore.

Later, after the show, I wandered down to The Page, my local neighborhood bar a few blocks down from The Independent. At the bar, I was chatting with the funky looking fellow sitting next to me who turned out to be Nikka Costa's guitar player and musical director, Joshua Lopez.

Joshua and I had a lively discussion about the show and what could be improved, what worked well, etc. This was only their second show on a long tour, and I felt excited that he seemed to be really interested in what I had to say. We got along great, and I tried to pull him out to one of the great late night Love Fest parties going on around town (even though I was completely exhausted), but alas he had to run and get back on the tour bus which was about to leave for Salt Lake City.

Ah, the life of a touring musician. Shame. We would have had fun.

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