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| Photo by Aggie Donkar/Brand New Kind of Photography |
Chapel Hill’s historic Franklin Street is the cultural epicenter of the town, along with the University that anchors it. A myriad of restaurants, bars, and boutiques litter the tree-lined street, but one new addition has become a source of not only great chocolate, but also great stage banter from visiting musicians. The shop is called The Chocolate Door, and anyone who has ever been around a thirteen year-old boy will immediately snicker at the slang terms that could be deduced from its unfortunate nomenclature. The Elected’s Blake Sennett got right down to it by proclaiming it “Butthole City” to the crowd at Local 506 last Wednesday night, and really, why not lay it on the line? We all have been thinking it for a year now.
Comedic moments aside – what a great evening of music. Sennett and The Elected were, of course, as strong as ever, and set a more mellow tone early by breaking out the instrument du jour, the ukelele, early on and transforming previously peppy numbers into new, more laid-back tunes. Reaching into the back catalog just enough to remind us of what we’d been missing over the past half-decade, he used new songs to bookend blocks of crowd favs, before ending the night sans-encore, which is quite welcome in a venue that has no back-stage.
All photos are provided by photo-masta Aggie Donkar.
The show was opened by Nashville’s Tristen, whose amazing voice damn near stole the show after being on stage for just a few minutes. Varying from sweet folky numbers, to a kick ass Dolly Parton cover, her range only verified what everyone hearing her sing was already well-aware of – we will be hearing a lot about her in the coming months.
