Brett Dennen @ Warehouse Live

As you might have noticed, we took a nice little break from live music during the month of January. For eleven months out of the year, we consistently hit shows up several times a week, but for one (decidedly dead) month we opted to rest our ears and our wallets. We did break our musical hibernation near the end of January though – and for good reason. An appearance by San Fransisco singer/songwriter Brett Dennen at our most-attended Houston venue, Warehouse Live, enticed us to venture out of our cave. We just couldn't help but take a break from taking a break.

Check out our review, photos and videos from the show after the jump

This wasn't our first experience with Brett Dennen – he was well received by the BOT crew at both Wakarusa and Rothbury last summer. It was, however, our first time catching the incredibly tall ginger at an indoor venue. We made it to Warehouse Live's Studio in just enough time to catch the last few songs from opener/next-big-thing Erin McCarley, who didn't sound half bad while standing in line to procure our first beverages of the evening. I can't really see myself listening to the tiny Miss McCarley much in the future, but her career will probably skyrocket once the MTV/VH1 population gets its hands on her. While she finished up her set, Cereal and I squeezed our way to the front of the stage.

Brett Dennen didn't waste much time with set-up – it only took about twenty minutes after the opener finished for him and his band to begin their set. Dennen entered barefoot with an acoustic guitar in hand and kicked off the set with a particularly jammy version of "Darling Do Not Fear." The song's island feel washed over the packed Studio, fresh teens singing along word for word. Dennen's second and third songs brought out his San Francisco influences in a big way, at one point even teasing an extended portion of the Grateful Dead's "Eyes of the World." His band consists of a solid foundation of Bay City players including the one-time bassist for New Monsoon and Karl Denson's Tiny Universe, Ron Johnson.

After a quick run-through of a few softer ballads from his latest album, Hope for the Hopeless, Dennen came back to his world-beat-, calypso- and island-influenced sounds with an inspired version of "When You Feel It." "She's Mine," a simple love song from Dennen's second album, So Much More, was a crowd favorite, judging from the ear-to-ear grins on the faces of many. After a brief acoustic solo number, which was unfortunately drowned out by the garrulous audience, Dennen riffed the opening chords to arguably his best song, "Ain't No Reason." Those who had only moments ago ruined a song with their barking suddenly stood still, not uttering a peep.

The two times we caught Dennen last summer, his band often left the standard version of his songs to experiment with their improvisational skills. Much like the Grateful Dead and a long line of other San Francisco artists, Dennen's strongest moments came during his last three songs when the band opted to stretch each out into extended jams. First was "All We Have," which highlighted a triple guitar attack. Next came Dennen's latest single, "Make You Crazy," which didn't feature the album version's guest Femi Kuti, but did feature the whole audience on backing vocals. Dennen soon jumped into set-closer, and all-around kick-ass song, "Blessed," which stepped up into new improvisational territories, but never seemed to reach that point of over-the-top.

The set was short enough to warrant more, but long enough to get a nice little taste in the middle of our live music vacation. Dennen's songs translated extremely well to an indoor setting, but I prefer the relaxed feel of his festival sets to watching him play to-a-tee versions of his songs for an audience of fans looking for just that. With his recent addition to Bonnaroo, there's a good chance I'll get to see him in a vibed-out setting once again.

For a good-but-not-great show that didn't omit the hits I give it 7.0/10 yolks.

Check out more of Cereal's photography from the show at our Flickr page.

Watch more videos at our YouTube channel.

–Eggs