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Wednesday, August 20, 2008

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Enjoying a concert with coffee at DaVinci’s

BY LIANA KATZ

In print | February 21, 2008

Dwight Smith ‘08, Harry Russin ’09 and Yaeir Heber ’11 certainly know how to draw a crowd. Last Friday night, dozens of Swarthmore students flocked to DaVinci’s cafe in the Ville in order to hear the trio perform a blend of original and cover songs.

The band, referred to loosely as Dwight Smith and Friends, took a very simple approach to making music. Smith played the guitar and sang lead vocals while Russin alternated between the accordion and keyboard. Heber mainly played the drums, switching to the mandolin at one point in the evening.

Russin described the band’s music as “pentatonicized jazz folk.” For Smith, Russin and Heber, this meant short pieces with gently pleading vocals and rhythmically rumbling accompaniments. The presence of the accordion and Herber’s skilled mandolin playing added a pleasantly non-traditional aspect to the set.

Most of the songs that the trio performed at DaVinci’s were originally written by Smith and feature lyrics that are as insightfully terse as snatches of poetry. Two pieces, composed by Russin, opened with lingering keyboard melodies. The trio also treated the crowd to covers of Bob Dylan’s “It Ain’t Me Babe” and “Don’t Think Twice, It’s Alright” in addition to The Beatles’ “A Day in the Life.”

Students at DaVinci’s responded enthusiastically, asking for an encore when the band was slated to end its set.

The venue itself also proved to be a draw for those who wanted to venture slightly off-campus.

“For me, going to see live music is much more than the performance itself,” Ruth McDonough ’08 said, “So the freshness of an off-campus venue … was nice.”

For those who missed Dwight Smith and Friends’ performance or couldn’t make it past the crowd that blocked DaVinci’s door, the band will be making a special appearance next Friday night, Feb. 29, at the Women’s Resource Center.

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