He didn’t have a band surrounding him, but John Maxfield rocked a small Whiskey crowd with acoustic guitar, keyboard and laptop providing the odd drum track Monday night. Moving between instruments, Maxfield put on a show perhaps better suited to a Silverlake venue, a raucous solo performance of hooky ballads from his latest record. Maybe the highlight of the night was a request for requests that was instantly fulfilled with cries of “Mercury Cougar”, a request concurrently fulfilled by the requestor of requests. The song, “The Town Fair” from his double disc Elevator, required an uptempo beat, which the crowd was all too pleased to supply with handclaps. With a refrain of “her brand new maroon Mercury Cougar”, the song let Maxfield showcase a set of rockabilly riffs and licks otherwise uncharacteristic of the set and let the audience revel in the vicarious thrill of a Midwestern dalliance, complete with unfortunate taste in automobilia.

Here are some schwaggy iPhone clips shot furtively from the hip to avoid the big, bad club’s policy of confiscating cameras. The first is a nice section of the triumphantly bitter “Loverman”, and the second is the endearing “Holding Out”. Both are from Maxfield’s latest.

So how about them apples, Eliza? Have you got something to show from your contenders?

He didn’t have a band surrounding him, but John Maxfield rocked a small Whiskey crowd with acoustic guitar, keyboard and laptop providing the odd drum track Monday night. Moving between instruments, Maxfield put on a show perhaps better suited to a Silverlake venue, a raucous solo performance of hooky ballads from his latest record. Maybe the highlight of the night was a request for requests that was instantly fulfilled with cries of “Mercury Cougar”, a request concurrently fulfilled by the requestor of requests. The song, “The Town Fair” from his double disc Elevator, required an uptempo beat, which the crowd was all too pleased to supply with handclaps. With a refrain of “her brand new maroon Mercury Cougar”, the song let Maxfield showcase a set of rockabilly riffs and licks otherwise uncharacteristic of the set and let the audience revel in the vicarious thrill of a Midwestern dalliance, complete with unfortunate taste in automobilia.

Here are some schwaggy iPhone clips shot furtively from the hip to avoid the big, bad club’s policy of confiscating cameras. The first is a nice section of the triumphantly bitter “Loverman”, and the second is the endearing “Holding Out”. Both are from Maxfield’s latest.

So how about them apples, Eliza? Have you got something to show from your contenders?

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