Ryan Star Ventura Concert Recap

I've seen Ryan Star as an opening act three times before but never in a full concert as a headliner, as he was on Friday night at Zoey's Cafe in Ventura. If you ever have an opportunity to see him headline, do not hesitate to go, especially in an intimate venue. He is incredible.

Ryan played 14 songs, I believe, and did a lot of songs outside of the norm, including "The Fairy Tale", which I'm not sure he's ever played live. It doesn't exist on YouTube, that's for sure. And it still won't since he specifically asked us all not to put it up there. Sorry, peeps! He also did "Flag" in honor of 9-11, "You and Me", "The One You Know", and a cover of Leonard Cohen's "Everybody Knows", as well as "Last Train Home" on piano, which I had only heard on guitar before.

I had never heard him with a band before, so it was a treat to see them rock it out on some of the songs, even on that tiny stage. I really liked what they did with "Right Now" and "Brand New Day", in particular. I still find the band coming in after the first verse on "11:59" to be a little jarring, but I think that's just because I listened to acoustic "11:59" so many times that anything else is unusual for me. I still love that song to death. "Breathe" was also stunning, as usual. I think my personal favorite, though, was "You And Me", which I had never heard before (I must have missed this somehow before). That song is beautiful and it needs to be on the album (Ryan said that as of right now it's not). It also needs to be on a movie soundtrack or playing in a pivotal scene on Grey's Anatomy or something.



Other songs he played were "We Might Fall", "Sink Or Swim", "Psycho Suicidal Girls" and the closer, "Back of Your Car", which saw Ryan climbing on top of tables and audience members. He also brought up someone in the audience to play his guitar during that time and someone to beat on the drum, along with throwing a tambourine into the crowd for someone to play.

It was an unbelievable night, and Ryan tweeted later "I'm gonna say it. Best show ever! Ventura rocks!" Honestly, every time I see him play, something magical happens, whether it's Ryan singing in a blackout with no lights and no mic (House of Blues Sunset Strip, 2006) or David Cook joining him onstage to sing "Breathe" (Wednesday night). I feel especially privileged to have witnessed him singing "The Fairy Tale" and "Flag" (especially on that particular date).

Opening the show was Skyler Stonestreet, who reminds me of Feist. She has a really sweet voice. One of my first thoughts is that I can totally hear her music being played on TV shows or movies, and later she introduced one of her songs as having been played on "One Tree Hill". I think the song was "My Favorite Song". My favorite tune that she did was her last one - she was going to record it next week, I believe. I'll look out for that one (if I can remember the name of it!).

I've gotta say, while I would love it if Ryan got so big that he was playing at the Staples Center, I SO prefer small venue concerts over arena concerts. I mean, pop and sizzle is entertaining, but there's something so stirring about being in a small room and having the singer-audience interaction. You just feel like they are singing right to you (at the same time, it's also a little awkward because you feel like they can see everything you're doing, and not giving them rapt attention feels very rude. I even felt a little bad for taking photos/video because I was looking at the viewfinder). But if given a choice, I'd take a small venue ANY day for most of my favorite singers (Jive, please take note for Kris Allen, mmkay?).