Little Hurricane @ Songbyrd - 4/12/2017
After a fateful posting on Craigslist looking for a guitarist, drummer Celeste “C.C.” Spina met guitarist Anthony “Tone” Calatano. And thus, the blues-rock duo (and now husband-and-wife duo) Little Hurricane came to fruition. Two days before releasing their third and latest album Same Sun Same Moon, they performed at Songbyrd and proved that their band’s name is a perfectly apt description of their on-stage energy, and then some.
Nestled between the radio-friendly blues-rock of The Black Keys and the harder edge of Royal Blood is where Little Hurricane’s sweet spot lies, but there are few husband-and-wife duos that make foot-stomping rock like Little Hurricane can. No matter what part of the set you're looking towards those drums, you can count on C.C. to be relentless with her many drum fills, cymbal hits, and even simultaneous mandolin strumming while in a perpetually chipper mood.
Anthony "Tone" Calatano of Little Hurricane at Songbyrd (Photo by Mauricio Castro / @themauricio)
Just as well as C.C. carried the beat driving the vigorous head-nodding throughout the room, Tone’s effects-driven guitar (of both the slung-around-the-shoulder and the slide variety) combined modern-day blues sensibility with some foot-stomping guitar licks that would make B.B. King and Led Zeppelin proud, especially on their cover of Bill Withers’s “Ain’t No Sunshine.” Combined, their sound on songs like “Bad Business” and “Grand Canyon” is a verifiable hurricane of energy that can make fans feel like they’re cruising down the desert highway as the head of their own biker gang.
Opening for Little Hurricane was Chicago singer-songwriter Jennifer Hall, who belted out some seriously impressive highs and lows in her songs that took a bit from the blues, country, and old-school rock n’ roll to make for a very confident and self-assured set. Her latest release is the 2015 Jennifer Hall EP, with new music to come in 2017.
