Saw Jake in PA last night. A short report.

UkePA

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I've been away from this forum for a while, but thought I'd post my thoughts on the concert I saw last night.

First off, Jake is an amazing talent. The show was just him with the ukulele. He did play one tune, Dragon, with the effects, but the rest was simply through the PA.

The show was excellent. There were a few "bits" that he does that seemed repetitive. One is the muted string fingerpicking and the other was the muted strum percussive effect. The other thing that I didn't love was how the tunes could have ended, then he adds something else, it could end, but he adds something else.

The highlight for me was when his brother Bruce joined him. Let me tell you, that guy is almost as good. They played Piano Forte and Toccata together.

Overall, a great show. I'll definitely go see him again if he's close.

Erik in PA
 
There's a guitar player I know who does this. He never seems to want to stop so he goes on long after the song finishes. As great as he is, it does get annoying after a while.

 
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Pretty cool that you got to see Bruce play too. Yes, he is also very good! I think "Ukulele Bros." is one of the better songs from Peace Love Ukulele, which was written by Bruce. Talented family!

With regard to the negatives... I think these are heavily outweighed by the good stuff.
 
I wanted to see Jake this week but he played at a venue in DC that is not that convenient so I didn't go. I hope he comes back through later this year.
 
I wanted to see Jake this week but he played at a venue in DC that is not that convenient so I didn't go. I hope he comes back through later this year.

I saw Jake in DC Tuesday night. Bruce placed one song with him. Acoustics weren't great sound was a little loud but overall awesome experience
 
I saw Jake in DC Tuesday night. Bruce placed one song with him. Acoustics weren't great sound was a little loud but overall awesome experience

Yes, just seeing Jake is electrifying.....but that venue didn't seem great......... I wonder why he didn't go to the Birchmere?
 
Glad to hear Bruce is traveling with him, he's awesome yet he is almost unknown compared to his brother.

True dat, Mike. But if he says his last name, he still probably gets the nice table in the corner at a crowded restaurant. ;)
 
Saw Jake for the first time this past weekend at the Keswick in Glenside, PA. No brother but great show...he's come along way since that Central Park video that went viral on YouTube 8 yrs. ago.
A special hats off to Leo Kottke who opened for him...what a guitar player!
Cheers all!
 
Saw Jake in Wilmington tonight!

I've been away from this forum for a while, but thought I'd post my thoughts on the concert I saw last night.

First off, Jake is an amazing talent. The show was just him with the ukulele. He did play one tune, Dragon, with the effects, but the rest was simply through the PA.

Erik in PA


Erik, also I've been away from the forum--tax season. I went to see Jake tonight in Wilmington with my office admin and his wife because they wanted to see Leo Kottke. He "opened" for Jake, to their surprise and to the surprise of the audience, who were Kottke-ites and most (except for the younger set in the cheap seats) hadn't heard of Jake.

Kottke was SUPERB---and so was Jake. He did pretty much as you described, so I won't repeat it. Bruce also was the highlight for many people and the joyous playing, the friendly, warm demeanor and the absolute nutso playing won the audience over completely. If you didn't know Jake, well, now you do. Lovely concert. Jake is, well, dreamy. That voice, that playing, dancing around, he's the real thing. I wish I could have stayed to chat (he was going to be in the lobby as the Grand is kind of an oxymoron--it's TINY venue) but we had to go because one of us has a business trip in the am and it was an hour and a half trip home.

Anyway, if you haven't gone to any of his concerts, it's well worth it.
 
Too bad Bruce didn't make it up to the Toronto show, well if he was there, he didn't join in. I liked the Peace, Love, Ukulele album better and found the Grand Ukulele album too dressed up with the whole orchestra bit.

One of the reasons I bought the thumb drive at the show was to get a clean, ukulele only version of some of the Grand Ukulele tracks. If you have a serial key, you can sample the tracks from earlier shows. Unfortunately my city's show isn't online yet. :p
 
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