Recap: Jay O’Donnell & Brian Lapoint at Arsenal City Tavern – 2/18/2024

By: Rob Smittix

Nearly three weeks ago, I see the Flier for Jay O’Donnell & Brian Lapoint for a Sunday Brunch performance February 18th at Arsenal City Tavern in Watervliet. First off, Jay is brother, my actual brother, not just one of my friends that I call my brother, he’s blood. Secondly, Jay never tells me when he has a gig, I always seem to just stumble upon it, while browsing social media. I don’t know if it’s because I used to beat him up on a regular when we were kids or something but he never seems to communicate well with me about his events. Anyway… I am happy that I caught wind of this duo performance last Sunday and I am glad so many came out to support.

Sunday was also my youngest son Ian’s sixteenth birthday and we sort of turned Jay and Brian’s show into Ian’s unofficial birthday party as well. To my recollection, I have never been to Arsenal City Tavern so I made a call to them earlier in the week to find out if the Sunday Brunch events are kid-friendly, not only did I plan on bringing my son, but my God-son and grandson as well. They explained that these events are all family-friendly and they asked if I would need a high-chair. They also highly recommended that we make reservations, so we did just that. I informed my friends who also planned on attending that they too should make reservations.

Jay (percussion) and Brian (guitar/vocals) played for three hours straight and they brought the jams with them. I hate writing reviews about performers, especially if I know them because that would make me bias. But here goes… Jay has been my brother for 40 years and my drummer since we had our first basement band in 1988, he became my actual drummer to our band Smittix over 17 years ago. So I think very highly of his skills. A few years ago after Smittix’s bassist (Will Seyfferth) moved out of state, Jay introduced me to Brian as he was to join Smittix  on bass for a one-off performance  at the Louie Louie marathon to raise money for the Regional Food Bank. Brian seemed like an all around cool dude from the start but it wasn’t until I “mistakenly” pocketed Brian’s “Brian LaPoint & the Joints” lighter that I realized he had more music. I found what I could online about Brian and I became a fan for sure. He’s a sick guitarist and my guy can sing. So there you have my biased review!

What is not biased are my feelings on Arsenal City Tavern because they aren’t currently an advertiser (Yet! lol) and I’ve never been there before. They were very accommodating from the start. The staff provided great service, great food, those Bloody Marys looked like a whole meal (lol) and we all will forever hold this as a memorable celebration of family, friends and music in our hearts! Kudos!

Also the place was packed, make reservations HERE.