It is no surprise that Jon Brion did not ask for any requests last Tuesday evening. The last time he did that to warm up the crowd for Greg Proops, some wise acre asked for Free Bird. It does not matter that Brion rose to the challenge and melted our faces off with, get this, a piano solo, what matters is that Brion was not going to allow the audience to choose his song again. To be honest, I don't know what he was thinking the first time. Who does he think attends the Greg Proops Chat show, if not smart ass goobers? (For anyone who is offended by that, know that I include myself in this category.) So instead he chose the safe course and sat down at the piano without so much as a glance at the audience, and promptly stunned us all into awed silence with his playing. It must be very handy being able to do that on command. I would even possibly qualify it as a minor superpower. Nothing as flashy as moving objects with your mind, but still very impressive. more ›

The voice rang out through warm Largo darkness, "FREE BIRD!" Jon Brion sighed like he was stuck on a bad blind date,but he'd asked for it when he began his set by announcing that he'd be taking requests. Opening for the Greg Proops Chat show the multi-talented musician was foolish if he thought his audience was mature enough not to do that. Shaking off the malaise Brion launched into the most beautiful instrumental version of Lynyrd Skynyrd's hit I had ever heard. Jon Brion managed to make the guitar sing as if it had been possessed by Ronnie Van Zant himself. more ›