A pair of up-and-coming musicians rocked an East Lansing bar Sunday night.
National recording artist Jude, who’s headlining the Kenneth Cole “Unlisted” tour with Michelle Branch, hit Rick’s American Cafe, 224 Abbott Road.
The pair of Maverick Records artists drew a sell-out crowd to the bar known more for its support of Michigan acts.
Jude, who has toured with Ben Folds Five, Dido, Train and Chris Isaak, won the crowd over with a 12-song performance, featuring mostly songs from his second album, “No One is Really Beautiful.”
Only playing a handful of songs from his most recent LP, Jude got the crowd roaring and screaming to lengthy renditions of his singles “Rick James” and a 10-minute performance of the college rock ballad “Brad and Suzy,” which featured a slight break into the 1980s hit “Groove is in the Heart” by Deee Lite.
He also performed the song “I Know,” which was also featured on the multi-platinum “City of Angels” soundtrack.
“We’ve been to East Lansing once before, and I just don’t remember the crowd being so nice,” Jude said. “Next time we’re on tour, we’ll definitely have to come back here.
“I’d much rather play to a small bar full of college students and fans than some bigger venue anyway.”
Jude also told The State News he plans to leave his recording deal with Maverick Records “in the next couple of weeks” and go back to an indie label.
“(“King of Yesterday”) was not an album most fans wanted, it wasn’t what I wanted to do and I want to go back to doing what I love. I don’t love this.”
Tim Vallender, a Saginaw resident, drove 70 miles to see Jude perform.
“His voice and songwriting are just incredible,” Vallender said. “There’s no one like him in modern music today. He was well worth the trip.”
The girl opening for the veteran, experienced pop poet shared the stage with wouldn’t have even been able to enter the venue had she not been performing.
Branch, who is only 18 years old, is touring on her latest release, “The Spirit Room,” which was released in August.
As expected, she performed her hit single “Everywhere” among other notable tracks from the disc.
Most of the crowd seemed to turn out for the younger, pig-tailed Branch. When she took the stage at exactly 10 p.m., everyone got out of their chairs and bolted for the stage, spilling beer over tables in the process. It was standing room only for the length of her set.
“You’ll have to bare with me because I’m sick,” Branch told the crowd. “But I’m still happy to be playing.”
And after the happy, yet ill 18-year-old left the stage, so did most of the house, with only the die-hard Jude faithful left in attendence. What was once a 350-person, full-capacity crowd turned into an audience of about 150.
Starting the night off were Grand Rapids rockers Sugar Talk. The band was selected from the “Unlisted Battle of the Bands competition at Rick’s on Oct. 27.
From the 11 opening bands, one will be selected to win $10,000 from Maverick to make a demo recording. Sugar Talk has already performed with national acts such as Nada Surf and Bad Ronald.
“I’m not expecting anything,” said Darin Christian, the band’s frontman. “But anything I can possibly do to surround my life with music I’d do in an instant.”
