Family Affair - The Revival Tour 2012 @Mocvara 06Nov2012

Most people, even the ones that surmise to know me well, I do not strike as a familial person that values much bonds of biological connectedness and for most of the concept those people are right.

Family is not blood bond. Family is love bond.

Even my brother, about which I most of the time feel only mild contempt, is a person I fiercely fight with and whose opinion I take into consideration even when it is polar opposite of my own. We grew up together, laughed together, cried together, broke each other's noses, ended one another's relationships, spat on one another's values and in the end we always found it in one's self to say things as they are and have a cup of coffee together afterwards. It is a demanding, turbulent love that never ceases to expand the borders of our tolerance and it is a love that gives the greatest gift of all - certainty that there will always, no matter what I do or what life will bring, always there will be that person in my corner giving me support and cheering me on.

That is what I mean saying that "family is a love bond"...

... and that is what Chuck Ragan's music speaks to me.

I could hardly wait his Revival Tour to come to Zagreb and now I've seen them play I can only say I wish I knew more musicians like that. More people like that.

They started as a family - all together on stage, sharing goodwill and good music with one another and with us:

And they continued to play, coming into spotlight one by one, communicating and supporting and performing.

I especially liked Cory Branan who proved to be excellent storyteller in live performance. He is so cute; with wavy hair and big blue eyes and yet so expressive and explicit  it was wonderful to see that discrepancy in action.

As you can see, Ginsberg lost his mustache (I was shocked for a minute or twenty - he looks great with them I was perplexed why he'd give them up).

Emily Barker is so beautiful none of the promo pictures give her justice and also has exquisite voice. As I usualy dislike female vocals and can bear only few of them this fondness surprised even me.

Jay sang some king of sailor song that I cannot remember the name of for the life of me but that was really great...

... and as there were so many of them and they just played one after another without pause it was a bit much for Tuesday after work. Nevertheless, the music was great and the feeling of camaraderie warm and persuasive.

They even bonded with one of the audience as our ambassador of goodwill:

Great, heartwarming performance and emotion-stirring experience.

Chuck Ragan has a tatoo "Forever Family".