Review: MIKE WARTELLA And His Rock Music Are Both Authentic At Feinstein's/54 Below

Monday night was family night at 54 Below when Mike Wartella took the stage for the second show of the evening. Actually, there's something about that 9:45 slot at Feinstein's that leans toward the family night thing. While the earlier show in the 7 pm slot is usually a headliner from Broadway and television, even the occasional film or opera, necessitating a full table of place settings and a bit more pomp, the late shows have a more casual air about them, with a menu of reduced selections, and a more relaxed mode of dress from the patrons, patrons who are usually friends and family of a performer who is less of a household name but no less talented. Mr. Wartella is just such an artist.

A man of a slight physicality, Mr. Wartella is described on the 54 Below event calendar as an actor who has been seen on Broadway numerous times playing children. A man of gargantuan talent, Mr. Wartella in real life couldn't be less child-like unless caught in the act of talking about his son, when he rides the fine line of paternal pride and childlike wonder. When it comes to his music, though, Mike Wartella is all man and all rocker.

There is a place in the small venues for rock and roll, let that be understood and accepted. There are those who think the nightclubs and supper clubs are for crooners and swingers and everything-in-betweeners, but the year is now 2021 and rock and roll has become a widely welcomed genre of music in the rooms once called cabaret rooms - especially when it comes to the kind of rock and roll in which Mike Wartella specializes. This eponymously titled evening of music was nothing more than a garage band of five men (possibly all dads, possibly not, but definitely the garage band type) playing a bunch of songs written by their frontman. And that is just fine. It is just fine because the quality of the music being played in the garage was effing awesome, man.

Mike Wartella is a hell of a songwriter. His rock and roll band makes fantastic music, and there really is nothing like a good rock band; these five instruments provide music so smooth and so lush as to sound like a symphony orchestra, yet so driven and so edgy that their status as a bona fide rock band is never threatened by the chance of misperception. As good as the band sounds, though, there is nothing without the foundation built upon a setlist made up of good songs, which is what Wartella provides for the other men on the stage with him. This isn't a set of heavy metal and future audiences would be advised to not worry from the idea (and this writer hopes there will be future audiences for the Mike Wartella rock songbook). Sometimes it's hard for a rock singer/songwriter to stay true to their nature if they are worried about getting too soft, and in response to that concern, they might tend too much in the metal direction, alienating members of their audience with a more, shall we say, delicate palette, particularly in a supper club setting, whatever time their set is presented. Fortunately, Mr. Wartella has a clear direction in his writing, achieving a sound that rides lightly along the alt-rock line while staying in the rock and roll lane with a classic rock sound that could easily land on a Billboard list, so listenable is it.

As for the voice, it is simply marvelous. The sound already sits in a pretty place, which is something you're either born with or you're not, and Wartella has it; more to the point, though, is how nice it is to listen to a rock singer with technique and training, which isn't always the case. Although a rock singer/songwriter in his heart, Mike followed the musical theater track for a while and that training has given him the benefit of amplification, so even though his voice could reach us without the mic, he uses it, and uses it wisely, to protect his instrument and to deliver unto the audience a more mellifluous rock and roll sound that can be appreciated, thus giving way to a greater appreciation of his intricate and poetic lyrics and the rolling complexities in his melodic lines. It's a pure sound that he makes with his voice, if also one slightly weary from life experience, producing emotional storytelling layers that might not be present in a performer singing covers of someone else's stories. These are his stories, being told in his vision, and as his stories, many of the friends and family in the room already knew the life stories that informed the musical ones. Those strangers in the audience didn't always know what Mike was talking about when he alluded to events in his personal life, which could work for or against him, possibly distancing them from him in their ignorance, or demanding that they use their imaginations to create pictures in their heads to fill in the blank. Whatever the case may be, Mike Wartella, the rock singer/songwriter, is good enough to consider playing out in other clubs around the city, some rock-based clubs like Rockwood Music Hall, where he can expand his fan base from the 54 Below friends and family time slot. No, the other clubs around town won't have the incredible 54 Below rock concert lighting and sound system, but they will have rock music fans who don't know Mike Wartella from Broadway's Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. It's an opportunity for Mike and his music to stand on their own in the world of rockers with no preconceived notions of who he is and what stories he should tell. It is time for the strangers to hear his music and for the world to hear his stories, all of which is worth hearing, just like Mike Wartella himself.

Mike Wartella's band features Jake Robinson on Drums, Tim Basom on Guitar, Campbell Charshee on Piano, and Marty Kenney on Bass Guitar. Mr. Wartella was joined on two numbers by Miss Alyssa Fox, and though this article went in a direction that didn't discuss her contribution to the evening, it must be said that her performances on her two duets with Mike were completely sensational.

Mike Wartella's rock concert at Feinstein's/54 Below was a one-off. Learn more about Mike at his Instagram page HERE

Find more great 54 Below shows on the club's website HERE

Photos by Stephen Mosher

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