Stephen Mejias

John Atkinson snapped this shot of our hardworking intern, Ariel Bitran, during last night's performance at the Sidewalk Caf. It's not that this photo was taken on John's phone under poor lighting conditions; Ariel actually looks like this when he plays. The dude is on fire, lit from within like a good single-ended amplifier.

Ariel opened the 2009 Winter Antifolk Festival with a remarkably physical set of sprawling acoustic songs based on The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening. I was proud of our man.

I sat there with JA, near the center of the room with a clear view of the stage. John had a Bass Ale, me a Brooklyn Lager—audience members, rather than performers—and I felt the way I always feel when I'm waiting for the show to begin: Like I'm on the wrong side of the stage. I mentioned this to John, and he said he understood. He feels this way, too. After so many years of playing on stage, it begins to feel right. You get to the venue, you grab an instrument, and you go to the stage. I miss it. But I was happy to see Ariel up there, doing something that I had never done and doing it better than I ever would.

We were also very impressed by Stephanie Nilles who let loose so many colorful lines of intelligent poetry and played piano with equal measures of grace and power, and Aaron Invisible who sang in an otherworldly howl and strummed a beautiful bouzouki.

The Antifolk Festival continues through Friday, February 27th, and will include performances by Jason Trachtenburg, Dan Fishback, Creaky Boards, Debe Dalton, Diane Cluck, Phoebe Kreutz, The Warbles, Mike Baglivi & The Open End, Shilpa Ray & Her Happy Hookers, Crabs on Banjo, and many more.

I'm thinking of going back to see Shilpa Ray. Or maybe I'll ask Ariel to tape it for me, or something. I'm over the hill.