Perfect Time of [Howie] Day at Iota

Howie Day at Iota, Arlington, Virginia
w/ opening act Jay Clifford of Jump, Little Children

recommended beverage to go with this show:
Monday means half-priced wine night at Iota
($2.75 a glass!)
Not saying it’s good wine, but it’s a great bargain.

When is one guy preferable to seeing a whole band? When it’s Howie Day, playing solo acoustic. Fans got a rare treat on Monday night seeing this talented musician in such a tiny club and we were all, as expected, completely mesmerized.

The crowd was attentive and agape, but then how could one be anything but utterly transfixed by Day's rich, sultry voice and creative song arrangements, mixed right on the spot. Most mesmerizing is his mastery of the pedals, two sets of them by his feet, which allow him to record as he’s playing and play back the overlays and harmonies. So, he might tap a beat on his guitar, play a guitar riff, and sing one part, and then play back those rhythms and the voice track while playing something on top, all while harmonizing…with himself. This makes any Howie Day show something special because you’ll never just hear the studio track, but something wholly unique.

The sweet-faced Day, fresh out of rehab, performed songs from his first two studio albums interspersed with a handful of new ones, all quite good. Day opened with “Brace Yourself” from his second album, Stop All The World Now and ended with a new one, “Everybody Loves to Love a Lie” from a forthcoming album due out this year on the Epic label. He posted that song on his MySpace page; it’s worth a listen.

The show was even more enjoyable due to the good crowd, evidenced by their rapt attention and the fact that nobody left, or even moved, after he played his radio hit “Collide,” fairly early on. He talked minimally between songs, always quite modest, and repeatedly thanked the crowd for their support.

Day opened his encore with “Perfect Time of Day,” which got a bit of airplay around the country, including on WRNR in Annapolis, but little, if any, around DC. A highlight, one that came during the encore after fans repeatedly called out a request for it, was the song “Ghost” from his 2002 debut album, Australia. Every gal's heart skips a beat during this gorgeous ballad as he croons, "No, I just wanna taste you, love," and then "Alive from the first / now I'm denied by the ghost of you." Just as the tears were welling up from the raw emotion of this song, he transitioned into a fast, funky beat and jammed a bit, putting smiles on our faces. That happy contentment lasted well after the show ended.

A special treat was opening act Jay Clifford, a singer-songwriter based in Charleston, South Carolina who fronted the band Jump, Little Children, which split in 2006. Clifford's solo work is impressive. Check out his new album, Driving Blind.