Tickets went on sale a month ago, and I drove over to the
Birchmere box office and bought ten - without knowing who I was giving them to. But I felt evangelical about this. It's the flip side of being a curmudgeon about a lot of music - when I really like something I want everyone to know about it!
A few people I invited seemed skeptical - maybe "Brandi Carlile" sounds like it's going to be mall music, like
Britney Spears. But the show at the Birchmere was 100% stand-and-deliver - high energy, passionate and confident. Even though the between-song silence of the mostly older, Northern Virginia yuppie crowd had Brandi admitting to being "freaked out," by the end of the show she and the band had everyone on their feet. Favorite moment - when Brandi came out to do her encore and admitted to hating the "encore" concept - the pretense of doing your "last song" in hopes that the audience will bring you back. But she used her encore time wisely and charmingly, with a new band song or two, a gritty rendition of "The Times they Are a Changin'" and, my favorite song of the night - a driving, table-slapping version of "Folsom Prison Blues."
For the most part, the highlights for me were songs off the CD, which is impeccable (I can't fathom why they are re-releasing it in June with different takes. This one is perfect! Buy it now!), but I was pleasantly surprised by a rocker they pulled out toward the end where Brandi got to get her Janis Joplin screaming ya-yas out. I don't think they said what it was called, but I'm sure they will put it on the next disc.
After the show, the Birchmere had set up a little musician petting zoo, and
Bev Stanton (far right, Arthur Loves Plastic) and
Ruthie Logsdon (second-to-right, Ruthie and the Wranglers)joined me in the dork-a-thon - but to be honest, one of the things I love about this band is that they are not cool. They are beyond cool. They're just great musicians. I can't wait to hear what they do next!
posted by Lisa Moscatiello #
1:17 PM |
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