The Linda is the live venue attached to the WAMC studios in Albany. It's a surprisingly tiny place - seating about 200 and it was an absolutely perfect place for us to see Sonos tonight.
These six singers really produced something extraordinary and thoroughly unexpected.
The first two songs were literally breathtaking - it's not often that I have gone to a concert without hearing the artist at all before hand, but it paid off today. It didn't get any less wonderful after that - but I did start breathing again. We were there partly thanks to LLoyd who heard about an a cappella group who do a Radiohead cover and mentioned it to me - I had tickets within 24 hours! The billing said "This is not your parents' a cappella" and it was right - it was unlike any form of singing I had ever come across - certainly I had never seen anything like it live. They effortlessly blend tight complex harmonies, beat-boxing, bass lines and wonderful singing - each of them switching back and forth amongst these roles as the arrangement requires and producing amazing dynamics and textures along the way.
The most striking thing to me was that, in spite of the light use of electronics to assist them, at the end of the day it was the six of them and their voices - nothing to hide behind, nothing to fall back on (except each other), no safety net. And they never needed it.
They didn't do the Radiohead track - and we didn't mind one bit. Every song they did was a thing of beauty - from gentle harmonies to bombastic beats and they come across as extremely likeable and down to earth and really loving what they are doing.
Wonderful. Catch them if you can.
It was hard to choose something - but here you go. A taste of Sonos from YouTube:
Edit: changed the video - this one better reflects our experience I think.
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