Live Music Review: Frankmusik In St. Louis

Wonder where I've been lately? Well I spent my evening at a concert in St. Louis this past night. What was I doing? I was meeting Frankmusik, one of the greatest songwriters of my generation. He surprised me in many ways tonight, and I'll have to detail it all below. Are you ready to hear about one of the greatest intimate music showcases this city has seen?

Frankmusik has always been one of my favorite artists. I spied him walking in through the front door to watch his opening act. I was unsure at first, but after a couple of glances I knew it was him. After a couple of people approached him, I made my way over to speak with him. The music was loud and it was hard to hear what he said, but I got across the fact that I run this site, and I also mentioned that I couldn't help tweeting Colette Carr.

As the openers finished their set and he started to set up his own stuff I had my first surprise. Frankmusik actually helped set up his own show. He did a have a few roadies with him, but he was actually on stage, setting up his mic, keyboard, and sequencers. I know he may not be selling out arenas nation wide, but he certainly did make iTunes charts consistently and he was certainly has a lot of followers and fans.

As the show began, he opened with one of my newest favorite tracks, "Map". The song went off perfectly. He followed with an array of old and new music. He played many tracks from his first album including "Better Off As 2", "In Step", and "3 Little Words". He played a few more from his newest album (which has a review coming soon, by the way!) including "Fast As I Can", "Captain", and "Final Song". He also did an unreleased song called "Shores" and my personal favorite "Thank You" from his EP "Far From Over".

Obviously, he stayed far away from  his major record label album "Do It In The A.M.", much to my dismay. I was actually surprised by the crowd's negative reaction to the album in general. I know it wasn't his best work, but it was still far above average. I would have liked to hear one or two tracks from that album to give a complete array of what he has done from the start of his career until now.

I do have a few things to nitpick, but it's really not much. As talented and fun as the drummer for his set was, I felt like he came in strong on some songs, overpowering some of the more electronic elements of the pre-recorded bits. This was especially true during "Captain" where it was mostly drums and little electronic bits, which is what really completes the song. The only other real complaint is that he didn't play the track "Cake" from his new album. I mean that song is amazing!

What I did love about the show is that is proved to me that he is as good as I wanted him to be. He has an amazing control of his voice, and he has a great stage presence. He was cordial to his fans, and stayed for a long time afterwards to make sure each and every person got a picture, an autograph, and a handshake.

This was one of my favorite experiences in music. I would have loved to sit down with him for an interview before the show, but it wasn't in the cards. He did say he wanted to check out my site, so maybe it's a good sign for the future. What I did get was an amazing show, and a little bit of merch to eternally remember him by. Come back soon, Vincent! We already miss you.