Acoustic Heartstrings Concert Videos, Plus A Solo Musician's Return!!

As we did yesterday, this post is largely devoted to musicians who played at Acoustic Heartstrings at the now-closed Room 21 this past Friday night, but in this case, we're actually looking at the show proper, courtesy of videos live-streamed from the venue's Facebook page that night! We also have a video to close from a resurgent local solo musician, but to start, let's relive that Valentine's Day unplugged concert at Room 21, albeit without videos of pop rock quartet Big Mistake. Even if they tackled a hard rock cover, they weren't filmed that night for Room 21's page, alas. We'll start with local punk/alternative trio Handsome Sandwich, who were filmed twice that night, including covers of 'N Sync's "Tearing Up My Heart" (you read that correctly) and, as embedded below, Blink-182's "Aliens Exist". Much more casual than their regular sets, especially in regards to Johnny's drum setup, but the guys are clearly having fun with these renditions, and that 'N Sync one took me a bit to register, so good work on their part! Give these a look above & below!



Next up, Room 21 also filmed debuting local hard rock quartet The Bridge Heads covering System of a Down's "Lonely Day", which won't be a shocking development for fans of these musicians, given that their predecessors Eclipse's last show was as a one-off S.O.A.D. tribute band at J.D. Pearce's annual Halloween party in 2017. A short 78 second clip, this won't be representative of their electric sets to come, but everyone adapts well for the occasion, and they are well dressed too! Unlike Handsome Sandwich's Johnny Belanger, drummer Chris Thompson played his part on a cajon. Give The Bridge Heads' first public video a look below!



Finally from Acoustic Heartstrings, this isn't of any of the actual scheduled bands, but this video was filmed before Big Mistake's headlining set, and it's of Handsome Sandwich bassist James White in a rare vocal/guitar appearance! Here, he and an uncredited percussionist are covering the second half of Alice In Chains' "Nutshell" followed by Rise Against's "Hero of War". The vocals are a little rough, but this has an authentic yet laid back nature despite the heavy lyrics, and it'd be interesting to see James in this mode more frequently! Give both covers a look below, and see more above!



Finally for today, a prolific local progressive/hard rock solo guitarist has re-emerged with new music, namely Mike Cliffe! While his Audiofumes podcast remains on visible hiatus, Mike has quietly been uploading new music onto his Reverbnation page over the winter, and while Reverbnation's usual lack of providing dates on material and posts is one of my pet peeves of that service, the first four listed songs there appear to be new. The songs include the experimental "Space Junk", the self-explanatory "Blues-In-T", and two songs with out of town collaborators. If I had to point to one for hard rock fans, it'd be "BWH1" featuring Washington drummer Bill Ray, but if you recall Mike's diverse influences and technical nature, there will be a lot to like if you crawl through his posted songs, new and old. As well, Mike posted his first new video in almost two years onto his YouTube channel last week, and it's entitled "Rock Funk Fusion", which features four different small windows of Mike recording separate tracks.

I like the funk sound and upbeat melodies here, and this is an easy track to like, but is this just the tip of the iceberg for Mike's return to his solo music in 2020? In any case, he's back in our active band links. Give Mike's new songs a listen above and below, and stay tuned for more from him and/or Audiofumes when any news rolls in!



That's all for today, but stay tuned for last month's poll results and our new poll on the site next!