Apocalypse Meow Night One in Review

Apocalypse Meow Night One in Review


We headed out to the Record Bar for the first night of the seventh annual Apocalypse Meow.  Meow is a fundraiser for the Midwest Music Foundation to provide assistance to local musicians in need of healthcare.  Besides being a great organization with a noble cause, they also put on great shows. If you’re a musician or fan of local music, you should really consider supporting MMF.  Maybe gift a membership to your favorite music fan? It’s only $25 and comes with some great benefits including free entry to select MMF events and discounted food and beverages at venues around town.

The groups on tap for the evening included Katy Guillen and the Girls, Chris Meck and the Guilty Birds.  Katy Guillen opened the show up with a blistering set of hard-rockin’ blues tunes.  While the excellent play of each member on their is to be noted, something I think that is overlooked are the vocal harmonies between bassist Claire Adams and Katy Guillen.  It really adds a nice contrast to the otherwise high energy uptempo tunes.

Click for more of Katy Guillen and the Girls

Chris Meck and the Guilty Birds closed the evening out with a more straight-ahead rockin’ set. In addition to tunes that have become staples of the band over the last 1 1/2 years, they threw great covers of Tom Petty’s “Honey Bee” and the Rolling Stones’ “Shine A Light”.  For “Shine A Light”, Cody Wyoming joined the band to sing vocals on the chorus.  It’s a particularly touching song for Meck and many musicians who were close with Abby Henderson.  She was one of the primary founders and driving force behind MMF and Apocalypse Meow over the years until she lost her battle with cancer in 2013. The song served as a nice tribute and reminder of why Apocalypse Meow is so important in KC.

Click to see more of Meck and the Guilty Birds

Gear news: This was the first night I got to break out the fancy new camera rig. I recently upgraded to a D7000.  It’s a pretty dramatic improvement over the truly entry-level D3100 I was using the first few years of the blog.  The extra dynamic range really helps in the low-light situations I so often find myself in especially because my budget prevents me from having the fastest glass. It’s really a nice upgrade that makes it easier to focus on taking pictures and less on missing shots due to jacking with inadequate gear.

One last note, we’ve got lots of shows coming up in the future posts.  Currently, I’ve got about five shows backed up so check back because we’ve got lots of new content coming your way.

Head over to KC Live Music Blog for complete coverage of other music events and news!

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