We had a great show billed by Laura from Bridget and the Squares, with Telextile that received a nice review from North East Performer Magazine:

http://performermag. com/nep. livereviews. 0807. php

or


Show of the month


The Orange Ocean / Teletextile / Bridget and the Squares

Great Scott

Allston, MA

May 21, 2008

The Orange Ocean set the tone for the night early on this drizzly Wednesday evening. The instruments set up on the stage were all low and close to the floor, with seemingly nothing above waist level. The music followed suit, as singer/vocalist Daniel Burke stood at a massive electric piano at center stage and started comping out low-range blocky chords starting the triad of primarily keyboard-based bands.


The Orange Ocean seem as if they are inevitably going somewhere. Perhaps it was the weird Elton John-inspired bass note/chord combinations between Burke and bassist Stu Pynn or perhaps the anxious beat of Kurt Dyrli's drums, but The Orange Ocean's sound is that of a cresting wave that grows yet never seems to break. Burke flitted about from digital piano to a Wurlitzer electric piano set up perpendicular to the front-facing digital keyboard. Burke seemed much more comfortable seated at the Wurlitzer than standing at the digital piano.


Listeners familiar with the headlining act that thought they knew where this night was going found themselves quite wrong upon the appearance of the arty Teletextile. A gauntlet of instruments (keyboards, small-scale synthesizers, another Wurlitzer, a medium sized harp, a trumpet and a violin) turned the stage into some weird sort of laboratory maze, where the subjects move about and play with different noisemakers. The set started somewhat roughly, thanks to a persistent loop that would not be silenced. This led to an extended interstitial between songs that may have led to a mutiny if not for the buoyant presence of front-woman Pamela Martinez. She is comfortable onstage with good reason; her impressive voice wells up from her small frame, leading the audience to wonder if that huge voice is really coming from this mere mortal on the stage. Teletextile's apparent reliance on pre-recorded tracks seemed somewhat overwrought; they merely need to provide a canvas for Martinez.


The ultimate set of the night came from Bridget and the Squares, although the diminutive Bridget informed the audience that this evenings Squares were actually more like Shills, filling in for the soon-to-be Squares. Bridget-and-the-Shills performed well after an odd mini-set by Bridget (real name: Laura Bridget Regan) away from her customary piano and playing acoustic guitar. Whatever instrument she plays, Regan's charms lay in her voice which lays somewhere on the register between a sultry Fiona Apple and an elfin Regina Spektor. Regan shatters the "little girl" thing with the occasional lyrical expletive, which seemed a bit over the top at times. A night of full of keyboards and small women with impressive pipes was a change from the general Allston guitar-driven extravaganza, and a showcase of three different yet similar styles coming to mesh in one evening.


-Review and photo by C.D.
Di Guardia