Grace Potter Rocks Martyrs'

A glammed up Grace Potter led her band The Nocturnals through a high-energy rock-and-blues set last Friday, and right from the start it was easy to see why she gets compared to Tina Turner. Cherry-picking the best cuts from her new Grace Potter & The Nocturnals CD, she kicked off the night with "Paris (Ooh La La)," filling Martyrs' with her big and crystal clear voice and taking over the small stage dancing amidst her supporting band. (The clip shows Grace and the band funking up "Paris" in their hotel room.)

Spending the night on pickless rhythm guitar and sometimes snarky keyboards, Potter got great support from the tight bar band The Nocturnals including Catherine Popper on nimble bass, Matt Burr on drums, and Scott Tournet and Benny Yurco trading off guitar leads.

But as good as this group is, Potter's vocals are the trademark of this band -- they're Maria McKee/Lone Justice big (see the clip) and Grace Slick clean and she's not afraid to punch 'em up when she needs to or reign herself in for a ballad or two. "Things I Never Needed," a highlight from the new CD, offered a chance to do both and Potter hit the high notes and and rocked all the way through. She rocked hard and growled her way through set highlight "Medicine," also from the new CD, while the band drove a hard line through the "She got the medicine that everybody wants" chorus. Surprises of the night, which included a handful of cuts from the previous This Is Somewhere CD, were an intimate cover version of Blondie's "Heart of Glass," which Potter introduced by saying she wasn't sure they could play it all the way through, and a more-than-credible take on Jefferson Airplane's "White Rabbit," with Popper's base laying down a loud and solid bottom and Grace 2 again spreading the warning that Grace 1 alerted us to in 1967.

There is some controversy surrounding the "new" Grace Potter, and if you check out her first few CDs or other Youtube clips you'll see and hear a much more raw and some would say less-slick sound. Her new CD does have to take that hit but the band live doesn't. At heart Potter is a blues singer with a rock bent, and if you can catch them live, especially at a club like Martyrs' on north Lincoln, it's well worth the effort.

And if you do get to Martyrs', for Potter or for her opening band Hacienda -- a nice tight band with a loose sound -- make sure to try the jerk chicken sandwich and chicken/cheese quesadilla which boasts fresh, raw jalapenos!