Fab Channel

The other day while doing the google for a new soul singer named Eli "The Paperboy" Reed I came across fabchannel.com. There was a Eli Reed live show at a club called Paradiso in Amsterdam that had been videotaped. Once there I found shows by a Dutch hip-hop band, Iron and Wine, Josh Ritter, and many others. As far as I can tell they are all at this same club in the Main Hall or the Small Hall. The camera work is great as they have several cameras going at once, the sound is solid, and the best part is that they show the set list and break it up so that you can click on a specific song and go right to that part of the show. They claim to have more than 900 shows available. This might be the coolest discovery I've come across on the webs in years.

As for Eli Reed, the guy comes out looking like he might kick into a set of old Hank Williams or Duane Eddy songs, but sounds like Sam Cooke or Otis Redding. And the band is solid, reminding me of the Dap Kings; a group of young, multi-racial musicians who capture the feel of some of the great backing soul bands of the 60's and 70's without being caught up with the idea of just re-creating that era.