“If I had a dollar
Every time I said ‘I love you’
I’d be Taylor Swift”
We included Affectionately in the list of our favorite music from the Bay Area in 2024 purely on the strength of their single, “Your Life Is the Wheel,” a sensitive, arresting, and pining call-to-action of an emo indie rocker we first heard as the band’s closing song for a live performance at Tiny Telephone in Oakland. A recording of that complete set is now on offer as Live at Tiny Telephone 9/24/2024.
Opening up the night for Silverware, bandleader Zach Elsasser sounds both endearingly awkward in the spotlight but also at ease surrounded by a backing band of smiling friends—including Asha Wells on piano and backup vocals. But who wouldn’t be a bit shy singing a dozen personal songs about love? (“Love” in all its forms, Elsasser says, sharing halfway through the set that two of the songs are about a dog named “Ornament.”) In other words, it’s the kind of warm, joyous set that could only happen in someone’s living room or at a storied studio like Tiny Telephone.
