Photos by Jenny Morgan and Jeff Klapperich Singer/composer Greg Potter lingers by the stage before his set, hesitant to go up and play. He soon takes a seat on the piano bench at the Lower East Side venue, The Sidewalk Cafe, and issues a nervous look around the room. He settles into the piano, takes a deep breath, rests his fingers over the keys and closes his eyes. The Sidewalk Cafe claims the longest running open mic in New York City and since the early '90s the backroom stage has been the hot spot for the antifolk movement, with performers emerging like Beck, The Moldy Peaches and Paleface. Greg Potter, corner stage, sings what he describes playfully between songs as, "An evening of mid tempo ballads." Potter’s piano work and whispered vocal hooks are deep and dramatic with pop sensibility. The two sounds combine effectively amongst the attentive audience, creating a relaxed introspective vibe in the room. Potter's hand springs off the keys during a new song, "Who Shot the Dancer?" and I note thousands of dead, old, dusty instruments lining the walls of the back room. I lean towards the wall covered with the instruments and listen close. There is a broken tuba, guitars without any strings, a drum with no head, violin without a bow and plenty more. Each instrument softly accompanies Greg Potter’s spacious piano/voice compositions, and together they become a mystical symphony. In the outside world, Greg Potter is in the middle of recording a solo EP at the NYU studios, due out at the end of this fall, with producer/engineer Julian Brau of the band Suturee. Potter’s other active project is Enid Ellen, a deep underground musical performance/experimental antifolk act, in which Potter composes all the piano parts. The up-and-coming Enid Ellen is a two-piece, and just finished tracking their first album; actually, a double album with 18 tracks just waiting to be mastered, scheduled to be out by this Halloween.
