Photos + Review | Sturgill Simpson + Cereus Bright @ Brighton Music Hall

Photos by Boston Concert Photography

[T]he night began with Cereus Bright, an act out of Knoxville Tennessee, who surprised us with their own brand of modern folk music, jangly, good harmonies, and catchy songwriting. They wooed us with an interesting cover of the Bee Gees, and some really catchy songs off of a few of their recent EPs. “Stella,” a tune from their Happier than Me EP, was particularly great, they made for an interesting opener and set us all up for a great show.

A picture’s worth a 1000 words but a word ain’t worth a dime, says Sturgill Simpson on his track “Voices,” so we can keep this short as I don’t think you can absorb just how a Sturgill Simpson show goes within a thousand words. We had the opportunity to take in a packed show last Thursday at the Brighton Music Hall and our first live experience with Sturgill Simpson. One thing that I certainly derived from the Kentucky born singer, he’s a true to god, authentic country music singer, with that perfect, country tenor, an awesome band, and a ton of great songs that span the universe of searching for salvation and not finding it.

The crowd was filled with the gamut of ages, young to old, people from all over New England, folks that saw him play the night before in Northampton. Everyone was glued to the stage from the second he stepped on stage, to the moment he left. Apparently getting on stage without a setlist, which he said was the norm, Sturgill and his fantastic band got on stage in a hurry, and started whipping out sonically perfect, wonderful country sounds that swept through the room, and it seemed as though the crowd hung on every word, and sang along to every song. The band was extremely tight, and led by a guitarist in Laur Joamets, who was something to absolutely behold, playing lead guitar and making a slide piece sound like pedal steel, he was by far a guy that could steal the show, absolutely fantastic to watch. Absolutely make sure you check these guys out if they are in your neck of the woods, and take a look at our photos and a few videos of Simpson and band as well as the fantastic opener, Cereus Bright.

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mMowR58wNCg[/youtube]

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=914-ofqhYjs&lis[/youtube]