It was a very cold, quiet Tuesday night when I made my way downtown to Shine. Not many people were out, the day after two feet of snow got dumped on Manhattan, but enough had braved the slushy sidewalks to make the line outside the club wrap around the corner and stretch halfway down the block. Apparently there had been some delay, and the doors didn’t open until more than an hour after their scheduled 7:00. But once we were inside, there were apologies for the wait and promises of a great show and rapid commencement.

Sure enough, it was not long before opener Spooky Ghost (solo project of Duncan Sheik’s guitarist, Gerry Leonard, backed by a drummer and bassist) took the stage. They were not enough to appease the crowd, however, and after roughly forty-five minutes of slightly restless disinterest, the audience was quite pleased to see Mr. Sheik take the stage in a "Nashville" t-shirt and black suede blazer over his blue jeans.

I was not among the veteran fans of the crowd, having never seen Mr. Sheik play live, and not being familiar with much of his music. Perhaps that is why it seemed to me that the set got off to a slow start. Promises to start off acoustic and then shift to a more rock-and-roll show heartened me, but the repeated apologies for the delay reminded me of the long wait through both the cold and the uninspiring opener, and the resulting sore feet and short temper I was suffering.

To the immense credit of Mr. Sheik’s music and performance, after the first handful of songs I began to forget about my feet and my impending walk home in the cold, and was completely taken by the music. It was clear that the rest of the (surprisingly diverse) audience enjoyed the show at least as much as I did. Mr. Sheik was quite affable, taking requests from the crowd (including one that was not shouted but sung by group of enthusiastic young men) gleefully, obscenely misconstruing comments about the quantity of snow besieging the city ("It’s not every day you see two feet!" a young man said), and surrendering with a laugh upon recognizing the irony of singing "the people are tired, the line is so long" on that particular night. His eighty-five minute set certainly earned him the right to return for not one but two separate encores: "the traditional ending," Fake Plastic Trees, and his own hit single Barely Breathing.

When he began playing that night, I didn’t want to like him. But his catchy songs with their warm melodies and beautifully simple lyrics, and even more so, his obvious delight in sharing his music with the crowd won me over. You’ll probably be engaged more quickly if you’re familiar with his material, but even if you’ve never listened before, next time Duncan Sheik’s in your town, check him out.