Ingrid Michaelson with Greg Laswell and Arden of Eden at the House of Blues on June 23, 2008
We arrived at the House of Blues at Downtown Disney on June 23rd just as the line began filtering inside the venue. We monopolized the shelf along the back of the sound booth for a good view and an easy place to get in and out.
The show started even earlier than schedule and out on stage popped a bubbly woman with a huge perma-smile and her hair in pig-tail buns. It was just her and a couple of guitars she exchanged between songs. Her brand of ninetys-style girl rock seemed really dated. Trying to pull up comparisons in my head, the only people I could think of were artists I listened to ten years ago – Joan Osborne, Alanis Morrisette, Jewel, Meredith Brooks… the list goes on.
Her first song was for everyone there with their “really good friend” and the second was about the “fuckupedness” in the world. With only a guitar and a pretty voice every song sounds the same however on her Myspace she has full instrumental on every song and the sound is completely different.
Greg Laswell took the stage next. Now this is the kind of indie acoustic rock that just makes a smile bubble up from the inside. He started off on the keys with Brandon Walters on the electric guitar and Jon Titterington accenting the ballad with trumpet.
Most of his songs had the twinge of sadness and loneliness. “Sad songs are more fun” he said. One of the saddest of the set started off as a happy one. Greg explained to the crowd that his grandmother came to him in a dream and told him to write a happy song. He demonstrated, “It started off happy” as he finger-picked a light melody on his acoustic guitar, but he slowed down the progression and as he did it turned into another heart-wrenching ballad, “Sing Teresa Says.” He also sad-iffied (slowed down and made into a piano ballad) the age-old “Girls Just Want to Have fun.” He did have a happy song, though and “How the Day Sounds” is a perfect interpretation of the feeling of a sunrise. The set sounds like a downer, but his humor and light-heartedness counterbalanced the beautifully lonely melodies.
The curtains re-opened and Ingrid Michaelson was sat familiarly behindthe keyboard and excitedly mentioned that this was the first time she’dhad curtains. To her right was Allie Moss onback up vocals and an acoustic guitar and to her left was Chris Kuffner playing the bass and a box drum. Her sound is clean and clear. You might genrize her as folk but saying that word would throw you into entirely the wrong direction. Her voice is soothing and intensely controlled creating a sweet melody for every compilation of instruments. Her vocals are the highlight and the sweet sincere lyrics are a close second with the instruments acting to accentuate the melody. She is one of the few people that sound fantastic on her album and three times better on stage.
The second song of the set she introduced with three hints: 1. It’s about a ship 2. It’s the name of a movie starring Goldie Hawn 3. It rhymes with cloverboard. The song—”Overboard.” One of the great things about the night was her stage presence, great sense of humor and ability to laugh at herself. She told the crowd a story about how she pinned her tights to her bra the night she performed on Jay Lenno but almost didn’t get out of them fast enough when an emergency arose. She also reenacted the remix of “The Way I Am” (by The Black Dice?) which led her to rap “Ice Ice Baby” and then the Fresh Prince theme song.
Later in the night she pulled out a ukulele to play “Far Away” and some other tracks. She also introduced some new songs throughout the night. “The Chain” she introduced with a little anecdote – she was sitting in her friend’s apartment in D.C. looking out on the “phallic symbol” that is the Washington Monument and decided she wanted to write a round. It
has three female parts and she spent a good amount of time trying to decipher if someone in the crowd knew it well enough to fill in, but ended up singing it in two parts with Allie. They also played another new song “Something More” with beautiful lyrics, “Love I’ve broken you, but you’ve broken me too and we’ve both got blood on our hands.” The last of her unreleased tracks was “Be Okay” on the uke. As part of the finale she invited Greg Laswell and his band to play a tear-wrenchingly beautiful “Keep Breathing” that debuted on the Season 3 Finale of Grey’s Anatomy. As her encore she did a cover of “Fools Rush In.” The set was probably one of the best I have ever seen or heard and if you haven’t heard Ingrid before, listen. If you haven’t seen her before, watch.
Stay Saavy,
Steph@A2S
P.S. More photos from this show in the Ingrid Michaelson album on Myspace
