On Sunday night Sparta played a show at the Warsaw in Brooklyn. I wasn't able to make it to the show but I did manage to make it to the after party down the street at Matchless. I had heard that Jim Ward, Sparta's front man, would be performing an acoustic set. Of course I wasn't going to miss a chance to see a solo acoustic performance by a former member of At The Drive In.
I got to the bar before the show was over at the Warsaw but there was already a decent size crowd. A little after midnight the flood gates opened and everyone poured into Matchless. If you haven't been there it's not a big place, especially the performance room. Upon seeing the herd we headed into the performance room and secured a decent spot up front while the guitar tech set up.
Then Jim hopped up on stage and everyone started hooting and hollering. It was a very intimate environment and Jim actually looked a little nervous. He kept mentioning that he's not used to the crowd being louder then the guitar.
The set he played was composed mostly of Sparta songs, which was a bit of a let down. I was hoping to hear some stuff he had actually written specifically as a side project. Although it was cool to hear the whole crowd singing along. I'm not going to go into details about the set but it was very short (6 songs) and hardly exceptional. But as Jim said it was his first time doing the solo acoustic thing so I'll cut him some slack. The one thing that stood out was his voice which is exceptional - something you might not notice with Sparta.
Here are a couple pics and a video I shot - enjoy.
I got to the bar before the show was over at the Warsaw but there was already a decent size crowd. A little after midnight the flood gates opened and everyone poured into Matchless. If you haven't been there it's not a big place, especially the performance room. Upon seeing the herd we headed into the performance room and secured a decent spot up front while the guitar tech set up.
Then Jim hopped up on stage and everyone started hooting and hollering. It was a very intimate environment and Jim actually looked a little nervous. He kept mentioning that he's not used to the crowd being louder then the guitar.
The set he played was composed mostly of Sparta songs, which was a bit of a let down. I was hoping to hear some stuff he had actually written specifically as a side project. Although it was cool to hear the whole crowd singing along. I'm not going to go into details about the set but it was very short (6 songs) and hardly exceptional. But as Jim said it was his first time doing the solo acoustic thing so I'll cut him some slack. The one thing that stood out was his voice which is exceptional - something you might not notice with Sparta.
Here are a couple pics and a video I shot - enjoy.
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