SUNDAY, AUGUST 12:

When the dark confines of Long Beach’s Que Sera are called upon to play host to reasonably earnest folk music, strange things can happen. Strange things like virtually no one showing up. Sure, it was a Sunday night, but I can’t help but think had this show been hosted at, say, your living room, there might have been a better turn out. The smallish crowd didn’t seem to affect the mood of Mini Love, a band composed of Los Angeles based solo artists Christine Hale (who performs and makes art under the name Love, Christine) and Kelli Noftle (aka Miniature Soap). If anything, the intimate gathering only upped the comfort level, allowing Mini Love the freedom to speak directly to friends in the audience and doing Prince’s Camille character one better by singing one verse of a song in a creepily accurate masculine baritone (malesetto?). Musically, Mini Love recalls influences as disparate as the haunting western twang of Paula Frazer, the adult contemporary folk of Dar Williams (prime-period Dar though… before she got TOO adult contemporary), and some of the more precious moments of Regina Spektor. I know what you’re thinking… Contemporary folk? Precious moments? Love? Mini? Well, go beat off to your Velvet Underground poster, asshole. Hale and Noftle possess some of the more lovely vocal harmonies and instrumental arrangements going these days, and if you’ve got a problem with that, then you’ve probably never enjoyed a sunny picnic in the middle of a grassy meadow either. What DO you like, anyway? (TC)