TriBeCa/ASCAP - Day 4 feat. Augustana & Sia

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Written by Adam Cozens

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TriBeCa/ASCAP - Day 4 feat. Augustana & Sia
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After writing up the report from day two of the ASCAP Music Lounge at the TriBeCa Film Festival, many friends and readers have stopped me dead-cold on the street to remark and then ask me "Dang son, you must'a been spent! There's no way you had enough left in the tank to go back for more!"

In most situations, you would have been correct. After the wildness of Tuesday, I, like most viral young men in my mid-20's, would have given up and called it a week. Heck, after that chaos, maybe even a MONTH! But I couldn't this time. Not during TriBeCa. No, no, no. Not when long-time Rockworms-admired actor Bob DeNiro went through all of this trouble to entertain me. I couldn't turn the guy down! I couldn't do that do him. So I grabbed Rockworm Jr. Research Assistant and intern of Copy-Editing & Related Media Storyboarding, Tiffany B. and headed down into the gullys of New York's China Town to cover DAY FOUR of the TriBeca Film Festival's ASCAP Music Lounge.

Before you ask, yes, I did miss day 3. In the words of the aforementioned Bobby D, "don' worry bout it."

The listed highlight of day four was supposed to be rising Southern California-based rock outlet Augustana. As we showed up to the venue they had already dug into their set and were delivering a quality, if tamed-by-comparison-to-their-recorded-works, performance. As Tiffany remarked, the band seems to have changed as much in their musical style as in their physical one. Many of the band members have cut their hair in the past year and seem to be embracing more the folky element that the festival had been putting forth. While many of the festivals acts benefited for the shortened set times (ave: 35 mins), or at least were better able to use the time well, Augustana did not seem able to bring their show together within the given parameters. Should they have had an opportunity to perform a standard length show, perhaps the outcome may have gone differently, but the lack of length on this set left many in attendance with a feeling of wasted opportunity on our breath. Augustana, while not "bad" proved to be our first disappointment of the festival.

Following Augustana was the youthful-appearing and highly spirited Australian singer Sia. I had been of the belief that I was previously unfamiliar with Sia's catalog, but as her set progressed I began feeling very comfortable with her songs and felt a developing understanding of the girl singing them. She leaves herself transparent and vulnerable in her lyrics, which certainly endeared herself to all on-hand. Sia gained acclaim after having the single "Breathe Me" chosen to accompany the dramatic closing minutes of the series finale of HBO's Six Feet Under, in addition to radio and chart success. Sia was able to demonstrate in a short amount of time why great words have begun to surround her with each step and undoubtedly left the Canal Room with many more fans than she came in with. A delight of a show and a definite highlight of the entire festival.