Bahamas and Basia Bulat impress!On October 4, 2014 at the Record Bar in Kansas City, MO, Bahamas with special guest Basia Bulat performed to a raucous crowd of enthusiastic fans and certainly gave them their money’s worth. Basia Bulat opened the show with her unique brand of solo folk music using a variety of instruments that aren’t often used in popular music. Many of you may remember her in-studio performance for Live @ KJHK last year where she used instruments like the autoharp and ukulele to great effect and it was no different live. Bulat had the crowd eating out of the palms of her hand and left them wanting more and more. The highlight of her performance came at the end of the show when she unplugged her ukulele and microphone and did a truly unplugged performance. Attempting something like that can be risky, many things can go wrong and the performer runs the risk of the crowd just not shutting up to listen. Fortunately for Bulat, the risk payed off and the whole crowd were silent in a touching moment that they won’t soon forget.
Up next were the headliners, Bahamas and they put on an impressive performance in their own right. Bahamas are also Live @ KJHK guests and if you’ve ever watched that video you’ll know that they are top notch performers. Bahamas is the music project of Afie Jurvanen and features beautiful guitar playing on the part of Jurvanen and lovely backup vocals. Jurvanen’s stage presence in particular is a highlight and he had some witty banter to throw at the crowd even when some of the members of the crowd were being obnoxious. The highlight of the set would have to be “Hockey Teeth” which feature some great harmonies and highlights Jurvanen’s skills as a songwriter and lyricist.
Overall, the show was a fun laid back affair that fans of folk music would love. If you have a chance to see either of them live, you should go because they are some of the best examples of artists working in that genre today. I leave you with the videos from their respective sessions for KJHK so you can see for yourself.
Written by Jake Waters