On a cold and rainy Tuesday night, Detroit’s hipster elite headed to The Bosco in Ferndale for an acoustic set by Brendan Benson. The venue had a big city lounge feel that was a nice change of pace from the usual rock clubs that the crowd is used to. Before the show “Alternative to Love” played multiple times through the bar to give the fans a preview of the new record. Also, the video for the latest single “Spit it Out” was shown on a loop on a screen near the stage.

Kicking off his 45 minute set with Lapalco’s “Good to Me”, Brendan was backed by Dean Fertita (Waxwings) on keys and Chris Plum (Mood Elevator) on background vocals and shakers. The group ran through old favorites such as “Metarie” and “Folk Singer” along with selections off Brendan’s forthcoming album. Some of the new songs included “What I’m Looking For”, “Cold Hands, Warm Heart”, “Feel Like Myself” and “The Pledge”.

While playing the title track off the new record, “Alternative to Love,” Brendan had some trouble with the lyrics and inserted some “la la la’s” into one of the verses where the lyrics should have been. Sipping on some wine after the song Brendan just laughed it off.

The venue and stripped down performance proved to be a great setting as it allowed the audience to fully experience the strong writing of Benson’s songs.

Brendan closed out the show with a slowed down version of “Tiny Spark”.

                                                                                                                          By:  Matt Caruana
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