Perhaps a good way of measuring my night at The Casbah for The Donkeys, Richard Swift, and Vetiver show on April 9^th, would be to look through my purse. There is the usual, such as my license, chapstick, some gum, and even some coffee grounds that somehow managed to find their way to the bottom of my bag. (Hey working at a coffee shop is what pays for these shows).  Aside from all the detritus that has settled in my purse, you will find a folded Vetiver poster stripped from the Casbah back wall, with frantic notes and documentations on Richard Swift scrawled on the back, a gnarled drumstick from the Donkey’s set, and a few free stickers. These are the spoils and souvenirs of a magical night of music.

Every single member of The Donkeys has a charm all their own. Each one seems to have a relaxed and confident sense of themselves as well as their instrument. Whether it’s Anthony Luken simultaneously crooning and lurching over the keyboard with his legs twisted underneath him, or Jessie Gulati (who just happened to be turning 21 or 27 that night, no one is really quite sure, we just were told, multiple times, that it was his birthday), smiling shyly and contentedly while he gracefully slides over the frets of his guitar, its obvious these chaps not only know what they are doing, but enjoy what they are doing. It’s absolutely contagious. Call me sentimental, but one just can’t help but feel good, when you see these guys play, with their hair down to the chin. It’s even better when, like The Donkey’s themselves, you can just sit back with a beer and a smile, and relax to their music, super smooth and super smart.

The girls in the Casbah bathroom are talking about Richard Swift, and with good reason. Swift is captivating. They are upset he is married or at least has a couple of kids, they’re not really sure, but they’re sure they would “do him”. However, inaccurate, inappropriate, or inebriated their musings may be one can’t really blame them and their inane chatter, if they just saw the set we did.

Swift croons at the keyboard rich and soulful. His voice is velvety and smooth and seemingly as dark and endless as his mop of curls.  When he plays his guitar I note the tiny half-inch scratch on his right hand. He wears a black suit coat accompanied by black converse. Sometimes his outpouring of sounds feels black as well, but his intensity is not feigned, it is real and he is connected and the audience is connected to him. Richard Swift’s music stirs you up, in a tantalizing way. That’s probably why the girls couldn’t quit running their mouths in the bathroom, that’s probably why I can’t tell you the name of the songs he played, or the model of his keyboard, just the fact that I drank up his music and buzzed off of the energy and presence and felt quite satisfied and filled.

If I go back to my “notes” for Vetiver that night at The Casbah, all I have is: “Vetiver=lullaby” scrawled on my dry hand. And you know what, that about sums it up. Front man, Andy Cabic sang effortlessly from his parted lips and through perfect chicklet sized teeth. Vetiver was Tight Knit that night, just as their new album title suggests, and equally as unbound and free as the wild grass from which they derive their name. It was indeed, with the weight of all three bands, the audience’s connectivity, and the general allure that live music brings, a magical night.