Jesse Malin at Blueberry Hill on 2/19/2005

Allison and I made it to the show last night. We both didn't really know what to expect. 
I had only picked up his first CD because of him being in D-Gen. Allison didn't know any of his 
songs other than hearing them occasionally. We both walked out of the show absolutely floored
he was so good. It was just him and a girl playing keyboards. He was all punk rock energy and 
attitude. He played acoustic guitar like he was Pete Townsend windmilling an electric. 
He didn't just stand behind the mic and play, he was all over the stage. It didn't sound 
like someone just bashing away at a guitar though, it was very well done. He had bandages on 
his fingers on his strumming hand, looked like the tips of his fingers were about gone. 
He got to the song "Cigarettes and Violets" and just the girl on keyboards played. It's a 
pretty slow tune and he yanks the mic out of the stand and tosses the stand aside and was 
leaning off the stage like it was the most intense song ever. It was amazing to see all that 
energy over that tune. He did "Death or Glory" by The Clash in a slowed down acoustic way that 
made it pretty cool. He did "Helpless" by Neil Young. They did it with just the keyboards. 
He walked off the stage and sat in the middle of the floor and got everyone to sit around him 
while he sang. That raised a few goosebumps. He closed out with "Oliver's Army" by 
Elvis Costello. Between all the songs he talked with the audience. Actually asking people how 
they were doing and things like that. He also told a few great stories. One of them about 
how he was hired to move Barbara Streisand's mattress before he started a band. 
It's was actually a pretty cool story.