I was excited to hear that Biagio Biondolillo’s tour homecoming show was going to be in downtown Bellingham at Temple Bar because:

1. I know and love the employees at Temple Bar.

2. It’s the most comfortable bar in Bellingham and has some of the best food and drinks.

3. It’s is less than a block’s stroll from my house.

4. And, most importantly, Biagio’ s music is intimate and warm; perfectly suited for a venue such as this.

When the day of the show finally came, it was Sunday and it was cold.  As I entered the bar and found my way to the second room where the show was taking place, I was struck by all of the familiar faces illuminated by radiant and ubiquitous candlelight.  The place was completely packed.  As I was trying to find a place to sit, I was momentarily paralyzed in semi-satori; overcome with the realization that summer was over and far away, that fall had arrived in orange and brown, and that I could already see winter creeping up with a dagger in it’s teeth.  It was as if I was suddenly aware that the speed of time is FAST and, little tugs of longing for the past aside, I couldn’t help but feel okay with it.  Snapping back into focus, I sat down on the floor in front, leaned back against a booth, and watched as Biagio tuned his guitar while Kat and Anna warmed up their strings (fiddle and ‘cello, respectively).

After small amounts of banter and welcoming, they began to play. All of the chatter from tertiary conversations immediately died down and everyone’s attention was focused on the three kids in front who were picking, plucking, bowing, and strumming the strings of their instruments like old masters while crooning in impassioned harmony.  It was obvious that weeks of tour, playing with each other day after day, had greatly improved the cohesiveness and communication of their performance.  Mainly playing from Biagio’s new CD, Alone On This Here and Now (Corridor Records), themes of hard work and love, lost and found, consistently found their evocation.  The pauses between songs were peppered with tour stories of leaking brake lines, lost debit cards, drunken beach singing, pop-tart crumbs, and the #1 Motel 6 in the country (apparently in Roseburg, Oregon).

Biagio is a mechanic, by trade, and works at Gundie’s Automotive Recyclers.  His songs sometimes employ metaphors about tools and engines and this has led some reviewers to label it as sort of a music for the working class.  He’s often described as a combination of Bruce Springsteen and Elliot Smith.  I think his sometimes subtle, sometimes blazing, but always precise finger-picking style has a lot more in common with John Fahey, Elizabeth Cotten, or Leo Kottke.  While his sometimes playful, sometimes somber, and always sharp lyricism is more akin to Basho, Billy Collins, or Edna St. Vincent Millay than to Elliot Smith.  Now, I don’t think Biagio minds being called The Boss and it is music for the working class, but it’s more complicated than that.  Yes, his songs speak about labor, love, and loss, but they speak more about the arduous and agonizing internal struggle to be a respectable, honest, and genuinely good person, while soberly realizing that this is not a battle easily won.  He articulates this struggle clearly, coherently, and without guile.  And I suppose that while this is is what makes him disarming and easy to relate to, it’s also probably what gives rise to the Springsteen analogies.

The set went on and I was ecstatic when they played some old favorites of mine like “Dirty Old Toolbox” and the completely derailing “Goddamn Radiator” (both of which, I believe, were originally All Creatures Of Good Heart* songs).  Biagio kept emphasizing how happy they were to be home and how lucky we all are to live in such an incredible community.  As I looked around at the faces of my friends, almost monochromatic, but golden in the flickering light, I couldn’t help agreeing with him.  When the encore came it was like absolution and everyone seemed enraptured by the lightning speed and howling climax of “Lone Wolf.”

Then it was over.  I stepped out into the cold, feeling edified, with a single thought on my mind, “I hope temple bar keeps having shows.”

*All Creatures Of Good Heart, you should start playing music again.

Full disclosure: Biagio Biondolillo is a friend and is also the brother of Mar.

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