Steve & Jon Rogers of Mighty Purple: Live @ The Space – Hamden, CT 10/03/06

Steve & Jon Rogers of Mighty Purple: Live @ The Space – Hamden, CT 10/03/06

Steve & Jon Rogers of Mighty Purple played a short opening set for the Wailin’ Jennys at the Space on October 2nd…and were really good. I shouldn’t say that like I’m surprised, I just had no idea what to expect. Mighty Purple has been a fixture on the Connecticut music scene for several years and I, somehow, managed to never see them play. I met Steve at the Mieka Pauley show I wrote about a few months back. He seemed like a pretty cool guy, so I was interested to hear what they were going to sound like.

The first thing I realized, other than I liked the songs, was that Jon Rogers is one hell of a guitarist. He played electric to Steve’s acoustic and laid down some of the coolest accents and atmospheric lines I’ve heard played live. I had heard things like that on albums before, but not in a live setting, much less by a duo. In the context of the songs, which were a good solid mix of acoustic pop and folk, the interplay between acoustic rhythm and electric lead worked outstandingly well.

The Rogers brothers’ set was full of energy that fit the songs; sometimes restrained and introspective, sometimes more pronounced and fluid but always there to keep their songs moving and interesting.

After seeing the outstanding vocal and instrumental performances by both Steve and Jon, their longevity on the scene actually makes a lot of sense. On their website, Mighty Purple writes that the music industry never really knew where to put them. I think they found their place at the front of the stage.