Sometimes life works out really well and it’s awesome. I had wanted to see Puss N Boots at the Newport Folk Festival this summer, but sadly their set overlapped almost completely with Nickel Creek, and there was no way I was missing them. I got really excited then when I saw the Ottobar announce their show for last night right after I found out that I was no longer going to have to work Thursday nights. The Ottobar is super close to my house and the kind of venue I don’t mind going alone to so I wasn’t even going to have to worry about finding someone to go with me. And then last week there was a stabbing at the Ottobar. I’ve been to the Ottobar any number of times and never felt unsafe. Based on what I know about the stabbing it seems like it was more related to the type of people who would go to the show that was playing as opposed to the neighborhood so to speak. It was most likely an isolated incident and not something likely to happen again especially at a Puss N Boots show. Despite that my husband said he didn’t like the idea of me going alone anymore, so he would go with me. I’m sure he would actually like Puss N Boots’ music, but I’ve dragged him to a lot of concerts recently so I felt guilty making him take me to this one since concerts really aren’t his thing, especially standing room only ones.

Then earlier this week I found out that Puss N Boots was going to play WTMD’s live lunch concert, which means I could see them without having to drag my husband and for free as a double bonus. It completely worked out for me with work because I needed to stay late last night anyway, so instead of going into work late I just took an extra long lunch in order to see the concert. For whatever reason they decided to make it a seated performance, which meant they only had room for 70 people at the studio. I managed to get there in enough time to snag one of the tickets to get in. I was a little worried when I saw the line walking up, but I think they had 12 more tickets left after me.

If you’re not familiar with Puss N Boots, it’s a country band composed of Norah Jones, Catherine Popper, and Sasha Dobson. I guess they’ve actually been playing together since 2008 when Norah and Sasha started playing gigs doing country covers in order to learn guitar. At some point Catherine joined them on the bass. They’ve just been doing it as a fun side project, but finally decided to release an album. No Fools, No Fun came out in July and they’ve been doing some touring to support it.

The album is an eclectic mix of live recordings, studio recordings, covers, and original songs. All of the music including both the covers and originals is more of your old school country, not the pop country that dominates country radio stations these days. Their great harmonies give new life to the covers and I really like the new stuff a lot as well.

The concert itself was a lot of fun. They had great stage banter even though they claimed to be still asleep at that time of day. They were really funny and had the audience laughing a lot. The music of course was fantastic, and it was so awesome to get to see them play in such an intimate setting. As so often happens when I see a really great show I wanted to see them again immediately, so almost wanted to go again last night but that wasn’t really in the cards. I felt bad about seeing them completely for free and not actually paying to see them at the Ottobar, so I made sure to buy their album instead. And of course I shouldn’t leave out a thanks to the awesome WTMD for putting the show on. Don’t worry I give them money too. I always want to support great music. It was a great little afternoon concert and I’m so glad I got to go.

If you’ve heard any of their music on the radio it was probably “Don’t Know What It Means”, which has been getting some airplay on the non-commercial radio stations I listen to including obviously WTMD. Take a listen.