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Cold and flu season, it seems, can even strike rock stars.
Explaining that she was feeling particularly congested during her show Thursday night (Jan. 8) at the Algonquin Arts Theater in Manasquan, Monmouth County's own Nicole Atkins said, "I'm sounding especially Jersey tonight."
Despite feeling under the weather, Atkins soldiered on through a truncated 12-song set that focused on material from her 2007 album, "Neptune City." The audience seemed to enjoy every note and rewarded her closing number, the ballad "The Way it Is," with a mid-song ovation when Atkins nailed the song's soaring, Roy Orbison-like high notes.
And while her voice may not have been at full capacity, Atkins also had the invaluable assistance of her backing band, the Sea, in getting through the evening. Featuring solid lead guitar work from Dave Hollinghurst, the band provided a textured and secure backdrop for Atkins to work off throughout the evening.
In 2008, Atkins performed at the Bonnaroo and All Points West festivals and rocked with My Morning Jacket on New Year's Eve at Madison Square Garden, so it felt refreshing to catch her performing at the Algonquin, a quaint old movie house in the heart of downtown Manasquan.
Atkins' cinematic, retro-flavored pop recalls a time when hair, eyelashes and songs were all bigger and flashier, and so it seemed fitting to see her performing in a movie theater which first opened in 1938.
Atkins and the Sea also had a slightly different sound than usual Thursday due to the absence to keyboardist Daniel Chen, who had to bow out of the Manasquan show at the last minute. Chen's place was filled ably by a violinist who gave songs that previously sounded polished, such as "Together We Are Both Alone," a refreshing bit of country twang.
The down-home flourishes also were evident on new originals Atkins sprinkled throughout the show, including "Darkness Falls So Quiet," as well as on her Stevie Nicks-like cover of The Church's "Under the Milky Way," which she recorded for her 2008 EP, "Nicole Atkins Digs Other People's Songs."
Along with being an intimate rock show, Thursday night's event, billed "Rock Darfur," served as a benefit to help end the genocide that is under way in the war-torn African region. Proceeds from the show went to benefit the organizations Save Darfur and Oxfam America, and Atkins' performance was preceded by a brief explanation of the events currently happening in the region.
Atkins, who was nursing a bottle of water throughout the show, seemed genuinely apologetic for having to cut her performance short and promised an encore performance in the near future for everyone who had come out to the show and held onto their ticket stubs.
"Next week, Asbury Park guys, have we got plans?" she asked the crowd. Judging by the enthusiastic reaction of the more than 500 people in attendance, Atkins had better find a big place to hold part two of her show.
