First off I would just like to thank both The Black Cat and Mazda for letting me win a VIP Meet & Greet with Mayer Hawthorne and putting together a great event. It was very cool. I'm always entering contests for anything that comes around but on my birthday I got an email stating that I was going to be meeting Mayer Hawthorne @ The Black Cat. Love this guy and I dig the venue and its neighborhood. I didn't know what to expect going into the VIP since I had never heard of this done at the venue before and was really excited too. Got there on time at 1830 and once inside I received a VIP pass and two drink tickets then was escorted to the Back Bar for some fan interaction with the Mazda people before Mr. Hawthorne made his appearance. They got pizza from the Italian Store and the beer was pretty good too. After about an hour I got my CD signed and my sister got a nice message on a poster, something about Twitter. After hanging in there we got upstairs to check the first band Gordon Voidwell. If you can imagine Matt & Kim where Matt is black and Kim is a white guy and you've got them visually. I was surprised how infectious their sound was, it was electronic keys and drums but very danceable rhythms. They started off with "Heart of Glass" and flowed together the rest of their own material in that same style. Next up was The Heavy. These guys sounded like Sevendust, no joke. A rocking band with an intense black man singing, with a British accent! Ok not so much Sevendust especially with their horn section but they weren't that bad and they played a good long set. After they got done the house DJ played most of "Illmatic" while The County got ready. When they came out the place went nuts. I saw these guys at the Rock And Roll Hotel earlier this year and they killed it. Mayer brought new songs this time with a bigger stage and it worked. It was a genuine Motown band, that's the best way to describe them. I wasn't around for the groups and solo acts back then but all the old footage I've seen was Mayer's perfect homage to some great music. Had to have been in the top five shows I've seen at The Black Cat and that's without the VIP package. Free shows are great but I'd pay hard cash to see this guy, next time he's in town I won't miss it. Great night for sure.
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