Jay Nash, Matt Duke, & Tony Lucca – TFDI at Momo’s in Austin on 12/11/10 (Concert Review)

Jay Nash, Matt Duke, and Tony Lucca – TFDI at Momo’s in Austin, TX, December 11, 2010

Good things happen to good people, and when these three guys, Jay Nash, Matt Duke, & Tony Lucca, got together a lot of people benefited to my way of thinking. Though they come from various parts of our country, they are currently on their second joint tour across the States, in a classic van-packed scenario driving city to city.

Three singer songwriters, three acoustic guitars, and all the music anyone might want in a given night. Individually, they each have quite a story; together they are making new history.

Jay Nash is originally from New York State, near the Canadian border and the river. After spending close to nine years in LA he ultimately joined up with Tony Lucca, who started life in Michigan but now makes his home in Southern California. When they started playing together in 2009, they were coupled with Matt Duke from Philadelphia as their opening act. That quickly moved into a threesome and a tour, which culminated in a four-song EP. That outstanding EP can be found under the “TFDI” title, as in Totally F*In Doing It! And do it they did – right up to number one on the iTunes singer songwriter chart.

I recommend taking a look at their associated YouTube documentary for some fun parts of their experience.

You can also see that Jay has done five studio albums, three EPs, and thousands of shows. A trained engineer who obviously loves the arts as well, Jay sees the world clearly and optimistically and is putting his fantastic voice and songwriting out there for the rest of us to learn and love. His latest well-received CD is called The Things You Think You Need.

Tony, another amazing songwriter, has six studio albums including his latest Rendezvous With The Angels, along with musical credits in movies and TV shows, time shared on the stage with well-known musicians like Macy Gray, NSYNC, and Chris Whitley. And yes, he was a Disney Mousketeer too.

Matt, the newcomer of the bunch, has two albums including Kingdom Underground. He is about to rock the world and really capture some hearts in the process. He seems to have done a lot of living in his years so far. And his stage presence is magnificent. Along with the TFDI work, he has a new CD coming out in 2011 right around March madness time – it should be a good month for him.

The three of them together are now on their second tour here in 2010, with over 20 shows and a new full-length CD planned for February. Here at Momo’s in downtown Austin, we had a lot of sound packed into a couple hours. Sometimes it was soulful, sometimes intense, sometimes downright fun, and always tight and harmonic. It was like having four shows in one — with each of them on their own, and with the three of them altogether.

They absolutely complement each other on versions of their individual songs and collaborations both. Standout songs and crowd favorites included “Pretty Things” and “Death of Me”, repertoire classics written by Tony, Jay’s “When I Stop Running” and the new “Golden State Goodnight”, and Matt’s “Sex and Reruns” and “I’ve Got Atrophy on the Brain”. And, their choices of covers at the end worked just fine with Tom Petty’s “American Girl”, The Band’s “The Weight”, and Bright Eyes’ “Lover I Don’t Have to Love”.

Thanks for coming our way, guys. And thanks to your families for sharing your time.

And, you know what? I believe you will have those guitar techs pretty darn soon.