Live Music Review // Audio Jane, Lee Totten, Big Joe and the Stolen Hearts, @ Blue Back Square, West Hartford CT, August 24th, 2024

Additional photos can be found on Facebook here :::

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.1550508942345988&type=3

Throughout the course of 2024 I've come up with a number of theories- realizations- about music and one of them which I hold true is that music is everywhere.  Now, I know, you're probably thinking this isn't some big mind-blowing revelation, but what I mean by it when I say that is music literally is everywhere and so it should be everywhere.   While places which cater specifically to music (the "club" or "ampitheater", if you will) I feel like music should be experienced everywhere and at any time because it's just that powerful.

When I found out that this show was going to be outside and rather public, I knew we needed to go because I also don't know much about West Hartford outside of our recent trip to New Park Brewing and this is a different place than that.   I am also struggling to not type this as being in Manchester for some reason.   But the one thing I do know about West Hartford is the West Farms Mall, so we headed over there before this show to visit Build-A-Bear and Pizza Hut.

What you have to imagine about Blue Back Square is that it is this literal square with shopping places inside of it.  Across the street there is a Whole Foods.  Inside you'll find various restaurants and when you look at pictures from this show to the left and behind me was the West Hartford Library while to my right was Barnes and Noble.  This very much felt like a show set up in the middle of the heart of the city and I loved that about it.

Throughout the time that we were there, we saw people going just from one place to the next.   They were somewhere out of view that I couldn't see, but would then emerge to visit Barnes and Noble.   Many people coming through were dressed to work as well.  Imagine you're on your way to walk and you happen to just pass by a stage that you never really see being used and yet tonight, at this time, Lee Totten is up there singing his songs.  

Cars drove directly behind the stage and just the foot traffic alone made this a nice scene because you'd always tell who got the vibe.   Some people walking by would start dancing, but keep moving to their destination, while others would be interested and set up and camp for the full experience.   In a "music place" such as Toad's Place, for example, you go into it expecting music.  But here, music just found the people and I like that quality that people could just be walking by to get to the Starbucks in Barnes and Noble and be drawn in by the sounds.

This show was also one that I really wanted to go to not just because of the guerrilla type set up but because of who was involved.   Big Joe and The Stolen Hearts is a name that I hear a lot around music these days.   They seem to be everywhere, playing multiple nights a week and going from places like Gastro Park in Hartford to The Buttonwood Tree in Middletown (which they actually play this coming Saturday, August 31st!)  If you're into the CT music scene, odds are you've seen the name Big Joe and The Stolen Hearts around.

Big Joe and The Stolen Hearts were the most musically complex act of the day.  With Big Joe himself singing and playing guitar, there were two people on percussion as well as a keyboardist behind it all as well.   This was the biggest set up on stage and you could tell that it was going to be a production.   While some of the songs were covers, there were also some original tunes in here, but Big Joe kept it to a mostly blues-fueled rock n roll show.  

Really one of the best ways to explain the experience of Big Joe and The Stolen Hearts is through their cover of "Purple Haze".   While artists can cover songs and try to make them sound as close to the original as possible, other artists have a way of what feels like putting that cover song through their filter to obtain their sound.   That's something I felt with Jake Kulak and The Modern Vandals- they would take a song and make it sound like their originals, so it'd feel like Jake Kulak playing Dylan, for example.

But what Big Joe and The Stolen Hearts do is they don't cover a song to where they run it through a machine which makes it feel like their version of the song.   They seem to dissect the song, pick apart and piece it back together to where if it wasn't such a well known song you might even know it was a cover.   Big Joe and The Stolen Hearts are really one of the best things about the Connecticut music scene and they're always out there playing so you have no excuses as to why you haven't seen them yet.

Lee Totten was up second and the last time we saw him was at Oh Momma (RIP) with Audio Jane.   At that show though, Lee Totten was solo and for this show he had a full band backing him including a second guitarist (as he also played guitar), bassist and drummer.  Lee Totten continued to tell stories as he played his songs and people walking by seemed to be really into them.

I'd be remissed if I didn't note that during "The Jager Song" an older couple (Note: I only assume that they were a couple and I am using the term "older" loosely because I, myself, am old) was walking by in front of me.   The man was following the woman's lead and they both kind of seemed into the music.   Then, Lee Totten hit the hook and started singing "Thank you, Jägermeister".   The woman kept facing the side and proceeded forward, but the man stopped dead in his tracks, promptly shifted his gaze to the stage and had this look like "What did I just hear?"

They obviously weren't offended though because they say at a table in the back for the rest of the show.   I'm not sure when they were walking by at first if they were planning on staying for the music or if that one line in the song hit a spot for the older gentleman and they decided to stay based upon that.   But to watch someone who may or may not have been coming for the music, stop and do the whole "Hell yeah brother" in his head, then sit down and experience the rest of it is what being outside with this music should be all about.

We hadn't seen Audio Jane since we saw Lee Totten and this was definitely a fun way to see them again since Quentin could also join us.   There is just something Audio Jane that I think can pull people in, even from their name alone.  Before this, you had Big Joe and Lee Totten on stage, both who played that rock n roll / blues type of sound which could bring people in with a cover song or just their sound in general.  Audio Jane had the distinction on this show of being a band and they also just have this wall of sound that I feel echoed well throughout West Hartford.  

As much as I listen to the music and just really feel what's going on with it all, I also enjoy looking around and seeing what is happening around me at the time.   This was especially important being in the setting that we were in, as I felt some people might have been taken back by what they were hearing.  It was that idea of "Wow, who is this band? Why have I not heard them before? and "How cool is it that they're playing here and now".   I imagine, based on how people looked, that was how they felt.

Maybe it was also because we were getting closer into the night and so more people were out, but it definitely felt like more people gravitated towards the stage as Audio Jane played, ending their set with more fans than when they started.  One of the best pieces of advice I can give to musicians who might be just starting out is instead of expecting people to come to you, play shows like this and go to the people.  But, I guess that also only works if you have that truly captivating sound that Audio Jane does.

Big Joe and The Stolen Hearts can be found on the web here :::

https://bigjoeandthestolenhearts.com/

Lee Totten can be found on the world wide web here :::

https://www.leetotten.com/

Audio Jane can be found online here :::

https://www.audiojane.com/

More information can be found on Blue Back Square here :::

https://www.bluebacksquare.com/