Sioux City Kid

Con Brio warmed up the audience with their up-tempo, soulful jazz. The band worked really well, and Xandra Corpora has an awesome voice that lures out the dancer in you. You couldn’t help but move to the music. The rest of the band could have used a spring in their step to match the music, though. The stiff performance was in a slightly weird contrast to the lively music.

The main act, Sioux City Kid, lit the venue on fire with their loud and rough American rock and roll. It’s hard to put them in any musical box, but that doesn’t mean that it is hard to enjoy their music. You can hear blues, gypsy jazz, ’50s rock and many other flavors in the music. The songs are intimate, pondering stories revolving around relationships and other real-life situations. Even though the music is fast and up-beat, the lyrics can be melancholic and blues-like.

Sioux City Kid sounded great even though there were obvious technical problems with the guitars. The songs and performance rolled fluidly and there was an air of confidence about the band that made it hard to believe they’ve only released one full length album. Jared Griffin has raspy voice that sounds like rough life itself, with a playful cockiness to it. The other main attraction of the band is Davey Diamonds on guitar, constantly moving and jumping around and abusing riffs and solos on his axe. The rest of the band played supporting roles in this production but did that very well. There wasn’t a weak link in the set, except for that guitar amp. - Performer Magazine

Great American Music Hall was about 90 people short of selling out last night for the CD release show of local roots-rock outfit Sioux City Kid. It was a big showing -- and for a lineup that consisted of three local bands, none of which have toured very far.
The music was good, too. Sioux City Kid sounds like a slightly less scary Tom Waits, but with the old-timey influences floating closer to the top. Singer Jared Griffin has a distinctly deep, gravelly voice, and the band -- which had seven members with the horn section onstage -- issued a tight, fluid take on the classic blues-rock sound that had those at front dancing through most of its set.

One thing that caught our attention at the show was the merch table. There, Sioux City Kid was offering its new album on CD. The price? Whatever anyone wanted to pay.


The merch table
?
Our first thought: Why don't more up-and-coming bands do this?
Griffin says he doesn't know how many CDs the band sold, but it made about $400 altogether on merch last night. He seems happy with that result.

"It's just about getting the music out there," he says of the pricing strategy. "I really don't want to deter the music spreading. If they enjoyed the show they should just feel obliged to pay what they want for the album."

Anecdotally, the strategy seemed to work. We overheard the guy behind the merch table explain to a somewhat incredulous Sioux City Kid fan that she could pay whatever she felt like for the CD. She ended up buying one. We bought one, too. Paid $5 for it, which isn't a lot. But had it been priced at $10, we probably wouldn't be enjoying it right now.

Sure, you could argue that bands may not make as much money by letting fans pay what they want. You might be right, or you might not. But for any up-and-coming artist, putting out a record is a money-losing proposition anyway. Griffin knows that. Local indie figurehead John Vanderslice knows that. Making money shouldn't be the point.

It's one thing when a band like Radiohead -- which is going to make money on its records no matter what -- lets fans pay what they want for a digital download. In that case, the strategy is debatable. But for rising artists who just want to be heard, letting fans pay what they want seems to only make good sense.

You can catch Sioux City Kid again August 6 at Bottom of the Hill and Aug. 23 at the Fillmore.
- SF Weekly

Congrats to Sioux City Kid & The Revolutionary Ramblers from San Francisco! They’re the winners of the Cabo Wabo Tequila “Your Shot to Rock” local band contest – and opened the local band stage at BFD 2010!


Check out the band’s website and support local music – and thanks for cheering on Sioux City Kid & The Revolutionary Ramblers at BFD!



Read more: Local Band Contest Winner! http://live105.radio.com/2010/06/01/local-band-contest-winner/#ixzz1ZwCTxDxR - Live 105

Pairing gruff, whiskey-soaked vocals, no-frills roots-rock and tales from the underbelly of the old, weird America, the music of Sioux City Kid has a drunk storyteller-at-the-end-of-the-bar feel to it. And that’s a good thing. Nestled somewhere between Tom Waits, the Drive-by-Truckers and Howlin’ Wolf, this band, led by songwriter, guitarist and vocalist Jared Griffin, has a willingness to trawl the shadows for a song and the chops to bring the people and stories that it encounters there to life. Moe’s Alley; $5 adv/$8 door; 8:30pm. (Cat Johnson) - Santa Cruz Weekly