Aldrine and Aaron really captured the audience unlike anyone else. Made me proud of UU. Highlight of their concert: (Aldrine) "do you all want to hear Aaron sing?" (Aaron: silence) (Audience: uproar). Aaron proceeds to absolutely blow people away with his genuine, soulful, and beautiful voice. Goodness was that ever a highlight for me!
Aldrine was unbelievable. He is certainly going to move to the forefront of "ukulele virtuosos" doing the circuit. I was at both evenings, and Aldrine is in my opinion, in his own league. He is a natural performer, and just can't stop smiling. Aaron is a wonderful combination with him, and is also extremely talented on his own. Aaron is also such a gentleman: he spent a bit of time with me at the UU table just open to any direction I wanted to take the conversation.
But for those who stayed, Nellie Mckay was another showstopper--although not for ukulele, just for stage presence, total songwriting brilliance, and staggering piano chops. Her ukulele approach is very basic, but it works and is authentic, just like her 1920's Gibson uke.
If I had one critique to offer to Swallow Hill, who put on the show, it would be: please remove the acts that only feature ukulele as an aside to the rest of their performance. There were at least two acts that just did not add much to the ukulele theme, and rather irritated many people in my part of the auditorium. If we want Denver to be the site of a great ukulele festival, we are going to have to do more research to find people who can really play the ukulele in an inspiring way as a feature, rather than a novelty.
That said, Nellie Mckay was so over-the-top talented that even her piano songs were good with me. Perhaps I am just inconsistent in my opinions--but one rarely encounters her degree of professionality.
Congrats to UU for stealing the show in a good way!
