by Lorraine Mazza & Amanda Vontobel
We here at Something To Say have a lot of love for Brandi Carlile, she was after all our “maiden” blog entry. At the time Lorraine wrote that blog, she had just started to listen to Brandi, but knew right away she was something special. Now not even a year later, Lorraine has seen her three times, and Amanda twice. We’d like to write a joint blog to share those experiences.
________________________________________________________
Lorraine & Amanda See Brandi Open For Sheryl Crow In NYC
by Lorraine
First, we saw Brandi open for Sheryl Crow at Radio City Music Hall. We got to our seats a few minutes before Brandi hit the stage. Our seats were up in the third mezzanine, which didn’t fare well visually, but the sound was still amazing up there. She definitely had a lot of fans in the crowd, they cheered for her immediately, and throughout the whole set. Every time she spoke, she seemed overjoyed and surprised about that, which I imagine has to be the best feeling in the world. She thanked everyone for coming early to see her, and said when she was younger used to always say she would never go for the opening act…until she WAS the opening act. Of course she spoke of how awesome it was to be playing Radio City, that’s got to be huge on any one’s level of great achievements. And the way her voice seemed to reach every inch of the vast space that is Radio City was amazing. She played a decently long set, a full hour if I recall. I was pleasantly surprised that she did her Johnny Cash covers, which is a bit of Jackson and Folsom Prison. The night’s intro for these two songs was perfect…because up until that point it was just her fans getting into it. Before she went into Jackson, she asked if NYC likes country music (the crowd screams) and she said “what kind of country, new or old? (OLD!!!) and she started to belt out Jackson. Then before Folsom, she said to get up on our feet for another song by “the late…great…Johnny Cash!” This is how she always introduces the song, and it ALWAYS succeeds in getting people on their feet. If the people who didn’t know her were not sure if they dug her or not, I can guarantee that jam totally won them over. The whole place was on their feet, stomping and clapping along.
Sheryl’s set was equally impressive, and went on for a solid 2 hours and 15 minutes. She did most of her new album, and a lot of her older hits, but they were funked out in the R&B style like the new album. I didn’t think “All I Wanna Do” could sound any more funky, but it did. It all worked really well. The band was excellent, and included 2 drum kits, a 3 piece horn section, 2 back up singers, keys, and of course, guitars and bass. I am not familiar with their names yet, but they were great. Sheryl had a LOT of fun with the crowd, sticking in little bits of ad libs during some songs. Strong Enough was amusing, as she told the crowd she is ready to find her next man, and hoping he has a “real job” (ouch) and makes more money than she does (double ouch) since she has two babies at home. Her voice impressed the hell out of me, which I always find to be true with her. She definitely comes across way better live than on record. But this time around she was singing with way more R&B flair, again obviously due to the nature of the new album. She said when she was starting out, it was that type of music she did as backup singer (most notably with Michael Jackson’s Bad tour, I think) , but no one would give her a record deal as a “blue eyed soul singer.” So now she said making this type of record was something she always wanted to do, celebrate that style of music and sing her heart out, and that she did.
_________________________________________________________
Count Basie Theatre in Red Bank, NJ:
by Lorraine
A mere two nights later, I went to see Brandi at Count Basie Theatre. I went to this show with another friend, we had 6th row seats and it’s a much smaller venue than Radio City. I was hoping this meant that they would perform the now well known, completely unplugged version of Dying Day. They did! Brandi told the story of how they did a show a while back when the power went out, and they only had a 30 minute set, so they decided to just continue and give the crowd the “in your living room experience”. She realized that theaters are obviously designed for the purpose of projecting sound up to the rafters, so when the opportunity arose, they would perform the song that way. There are lots of great youtube clips out there, but it really is something you have to experience in person. Mics and amps do an excellent job at projecting sound for all to hear, but you can sort of forget that the voice you are hearing is coming from living, breathing person. Hearing Brandi sing this way makes you appreciate what the human body is capable of when blessed with such talent She sings with such natural emotion and her voice effortlessly ranges from angelic to booming gut wrenching intensity. It is nothing short of astounding.
Aside all the talent, Brandi is also a super personable performer. The show opened with “Again Today”, which starts off slow and then builds in intensity until the end where it comes down again. The theater was full of excitement as the song started to come to a close. The crowd is silent and one girl screams what had to be on every one’s mind, a very heartfelt “Oh my GOD”, causing Brandi to turn away from the mic and laugh. She finished the last few lines of the song, and said that’s how she knows she’s on the east coast. That seemed to set the tone for the whole night because there were a few other random crowd shout outs. When Brandi mentioned the album “The Story”, someone yelled out that they just got married and used that as their wedding song. Brandi went on to say, “well we’re not doing that one now, and I HOPE this next song wasn’t your wedding song, because that would be depressing.” The song was “Shadow on the Wall”, which is definitely not a happy love song. Another point, someone held up a sign saying it was her Dad’s birthday, Brandi asked his name and led the crowd in singing Happy Birthday to him. And later on, another person asked if they could play “Have You Ever”, Brandi turned to the band and said, “fuck it, let’s do it!” and they all changed instruments to play that song instead of what they were about to do. All of this is not that uncommon for small venue shows, but it’s still fun when handled properly as she did.
I mentioned in my first write up about Brandi that she is “light”, and I still stand by that belief. Even on youtube clips, watching her face as she sings, she seems to have this positive energy all around her. And now that I’m more familiar with her music, I find it interesting because most of her songs are heartbreaking and sad. How can someone sing that intensely sad, yet emit such a positive vibe? The only answer I can think of is balance. If you’re still not familiar with Brandi and her band, keep listening. Listen with more than your ears, and you will get it, and maybe even start to find your own balance too.
_______________________________________________________
Tarrytown Music Hall in Tarrytown, NY:
by Amanda
I’ve been a Brandi fan for years now. Got her first self titled CD not long after it came out in 2005. Couldn’t tell you where I first heard about her, but I’m guessing some gay related site reviewed it. I fell in love with her music immediately. Her lyrics are beautiful, heart felt, and can touch anyone. Her voice is full, gorgeous and reaches in and grabs you. Her music has been called rock, folk, alternate country, even pop. I love a musician or band that doesn’t fit in a box.
It took me about 5 years until I saw her for the first time in September at Radio City. When Lorraine and I saw she was playing in the city and plus opening for Sheryl Crow, we knew that we must go. Then soon after I saw that she was playing in Tarrytown, NY, which is pretty close to me. And I just had to go. To see her do a full set in a smaller theater was something I couldn’t miss. I dragged three Brandi virgins to the show, who all absolutely loved her. Which I was not at all surprised by.
This show was amazing. One of my all time favorite concerts to date. And I go to a lot of shows, that anyone that knows me can attest too. Brandi along with the twins Tim & Phil Hanseroth, Josh Newman, & Allison Miller are so much fun to watch. They are all having a great time on stage. You can truly tell that they love to play music. And to play music together.
Most of the shows I go to are in small clubs. But, this show in a theater had the same feel of intimacy that smaller venues have. And I’d have to say that’s mainly because of the people on stage. Brandi talks to the crowd and banters as if she can see everyone, and is so happy to be up there. Speaking of, the crowd was awesome. Singing along, hooting and hollering, yelling out song requests. That Brandi asked for and accommodated every request.
They were very strict about video at this venue, so my Flip camera stayed in my bag. But, there’s a couple clips online. This one of Pride & Joy is pretty good. And I think this person about about 2 rows directly in front of me.
A million times over, I recommend seeing Brandi Carlile live if you get the chance. I don’t know if I have the right words to express what a great experience it was. To see her do a short opening set was wonderful, but to see a full 2 hours & 15 minutes set was just incredible. Brandi is someone I’ll see over and over.
_______________________
*Title photo, Radio City Music Hall photos & Tarrytown Music Hall photos by Amanda Vontobel. Count Basie Theatre photos by Lorraine Mazza.
