Jimmy Gnecco Played a Beautiful Intimate Show at Pearl Street Warehouse

Live Review

Live Review: Jimmy Gnecco @ Pearl Street Warehouse — 5/5/24

marcshea2

May 10, 2024

Live Review: Jimmy Gnecco @ Pearl Street Warehouse — 5/5/24 — Jimmy Gnecco performs at Pearl Street Warehouse on May 5, 2024. (Photo by Marc Shea)

Pearl Street Warehouse hosted a wonderfully intimate show on Cinco de Mayo. Jimmy Gnecco, from the band OURS, headlined a three-act show that night.

If you haven’t seen Jimmy Gnecco…go see Jimmy Gnecco. Pearl Street Warehouse is a great spot for a show like this. It’s a small club with a few cocktail tables in the back and a balcony over top of them.

At Pearl Street Warehouse on May 5, the opener was an artist named Static. He played a great ambient set. It was just him, a guitar, and some effects pedals.

The second act was a group called She Sees Fairies. The band is made up of singer Kira Violet and guitarist…Static. They did not continue with the ambient music. Instead they played an ethereal brand of alt-rock that was closer to the sound of the headliner. Just before the final song in the set, Kira took a moment to thank Jimmy for bringing her out for the show. That was the first in a number of “thank you’s” that happened throughout the night.

Jimmy entered from stage right with his accompanists, guitarists Race and…STATIC! The man pulled triple duty! Once all three took to their stools, Jimmy thanked everyone for coming out and asked for a tequila to celebrate Cinco de Mayo with everyone. His set began with a toast, a little history about the guitar he was playing, and a song from his 2010 solo album, The Heart called Light On The Grave.

The trio played stripped down versions of mostly Jimmy Gnecco-penned songs. Jimmy played guitar and sang, Race played a second acoustic, and Static filled everything out with a Les Paul. After three more songs, Jimmy broke out a new song called “Togetherness.” Well, to be honest, it isn’t exactly new. Jimmy explained that he started the song 27 years ago and finished it six days before the show.

He also thanked Race and Static for sticking with him for years. Jimmy spoke about some of the trials and tribulations of trying to record and release an album on a major label in the ’90s and early 2000s. He also does a great Rick Rubin impersonation. Jimmy also thanked Robert DeLeo of Stone Temple Pilots. Jimmy had worked on songs with Robert for his solo album called Lessons Learned. Jimmy then played one of the songs from that album, “Love Is Not Made Of Gold.”

Stream top tracks by Jimmy Gnecco on Spotify:

After the song ended, Jimmy asked what we all wanted to hear. So everyone called out their favorites. Jimmy stayed silent for a moment then said he was taking them all in. He then started playing one of the songs requested by the crowd, “Red Colored Stars.”

At this point, the show became very personal to me. Full disclosure, Jimmy and I have been friends for a few years and have done podcasts and some other projects together. One of those gave Jimmy the opportunity to play with the UK-based band Humanist, not only on their last tour where they opened for Depeche Mode, but also for upcoming shows, opening for Jane’s Addiction. Jimmy, unbeknownst to me, took a few minutes in between songs to say thank you to me for that opportunity as well as the podcasts we’ve done, and the friendship we’ve created. So I’ll take this moment to say, “Thank you, Jimmy. You are one of the sweetest, kindest, and most gentle people I know. I am grateful I can call you my friend”.

After that break in the music, Jimmy commenced to play a favorite of mine, “I’m A Monster.”

Close to the end of the set, Jimmy played a song that he hasn’t performed much. “Miles Away” was written for and about his mother, who has since passed away. Jimmy got a bit emotional during the song and apologized when he finished, explaining why he was having a difficult time with it.

The show wrapped up with two amazing tracks, Eternally, from the latest OURS album and The Heart, the title track from his lone solo album. There was no encore. We didn’t need one. It was a beautiful, intimate show and one that will always be special to me, for obvious reasons. So I will say it again…if you have not seen Jimmy Gnecco…go see Jimmy Gnecco.