Nick Neihardt sings and plays the guitar at a show. (Photo by Keerthi Vedantam)In a dim, foggy house where the girls wear oversized flannel, the guys wear short shorts that end mid-thigh and everyone sports thick-framed black glasses, a man wearing a long white dress and a beige cowboy hat holds a guitar and sings.
His name is Nick Neihart, and he’s performing in the family room of a small, suburban house near the Tempe campus. Sporting a tall cowboy hat and a full-sleeved white dress that hits just above his shoes, he stands in the cloudy room behind a brick fireplace and a family portrait of — well, nobody is really sure who it’s of — in the background.
Coming all the way from Salt Lake City to release a new tape with The Paper Knife, an arts group that collects and produces local art of nearly every medium, Neihart and his band performed songs from their new album, “Love Poems,” on Sept. 14 for a house audience.
His whimsicality showed. While other bands in the set lineup wore regular clothes from tattered jeans and plain T-shirts to Urban Outfitters crop-tops and canvas shoes, Neihart changed his clothes just before getting on the makeshift stage. Closing his eyes and singing into the microphone while wearing what looked like an oversized kurta made him unique from the other bands that went on stage that night.
The Paper Knife has been doing house shows similar to this one for a while now; its $5 shows at regular family households have featured local bands such as Good Friends Great Enemies, Brain Child and Mickey & the Mountains.
Growing up around a musical family shaped Neihart's music. He launched his career at 5 while making music and pretending to be a radio DJ.
“Love Poems,” both a music album and a literal book of poems written by Neihart, seeks to express love in all its manifestations — beauty, repression and sadness alike. As he fine-tunes his guitar, Neihart pushes his tongue between his lips and furrows his brow in concentration. Yet, when members of the audience approach him, he brightens up, shakes their hands and tells them to enjoy the show.
“The music really sinks into your skin,” said Nick Tanner, one of the many who attended the house show. He’s swaying back and forth, holding a cigarette in one hand and a bottle in another as though in a trance, as the audience mirrors his vibe.
Reach the reporter at kvedanta@asu.edu or follow her on Twitter @keerthivedantam
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