Cuba w/ Travis Dillon

Last night was quite possibly the best Cuba show I've seen. They're infectious. It seems like every time they play live, the place is filled with two kinds of people: the ones who love Cuba already and the ones who will by the end of the night. They just work so darn well together. Their energy is palpable, remaining charismatic and buoyant even when frontman Jon DaCosta put his foot through his poor, poor guitar.

Cuba played songs off both of their albums, Sounds Like a Story and Epilogue, plus new songs that are shaping up excellently. New album soon.

It was good to see Travis Dillon as opener, too. Good stuff. See more photos from the evening!

Mp3: Cuba - High Fidelity (Buy)

Ever since I saw the light, my eyes are wider

Around the Haute everything is turning into a sheet of ice, again. While I was sliding down the road, a song came up on the play list and turned a crappy bad-weather highway into a stark and lovely instance of motion meeting sky. "Circles," by TH's beloved Cuba, is a two-chord masterpiece.

Cuba's 2006 release Sounds Like a Story (buy) is quite a bit different from their live shows — it's a folk album from a band that prefers to rock a bit harder live, and after this cd the band line-up changed a bit as well — but it's a CD I keep coming back to. Quite simply, Jon DaCosta knows how to write songs. I discovered their music via this album before I got to know various members of the band, so I feel content in knowing that I would be a fan even if I didn't know how great the guys are. (Its follow-up Epilogue (buy), in 2007, is also awesome in different ways, but I'm sure I'll get to it later. And the fellas are recording again; I can't wait!)

MP3: Cuba - Circles (Buy)


CUBA VIDEO TEASER