Ingrid Visits The Casino

Maybe my initial rants about this city not having a decent music scene were a little ... over the top? :)

Since seeing Sheryl Crow in August, and The Weepies in October, Ingrid Michaelson this month, and Relient K next month, that makes me ... retract at least the tone if not the actual remark! One decent show every month or so would not be so bad. :)

The particular show we took in Sunday night was actually a benefit for the local food pantry. All the ticket proceeds went to the charity, thanks to the corporate sponsors taking care of the artist's costs (and from the tone of her on-stage remarks, perhaps Ingrid settling for less than normal rates).

The venue was odd, though - an event ballroom in a casino.



Ahhh, the ambience.. dinging bells, clanking coins, rattling chips.. and cigarette smoke. Boy, it had been awhile since I'd been in a facility with smoke hanging in the air. Guess when the Casino is the property of a "sovereign nation", they can do what they want.



The ballroom was smoke-free, though, and also chair-free. :( Lots of people pulled up a nearby chunk of wall and watched the jumbotrons instead of the stage.



The opener this time was only so-so: lots of emotive bellowing. Sitting in the hallway in comfortable chairs was far more preferable to actually being in the hall when this dude was belting it out. But Ingrid... ahhh. Nice.



She is so funny on-stage, and (apparently) completely spontaneous with comments, stories, antics with her band-mates, trying to mess up the lighting guy who worked the spotlight, you name it. Very entertaining. And I love the songs - she does so many in 3/4, 6/8, 12/8 time.. you'd think you were at a skating rink. :) And her ukulele work is just priceless.



The highlight of the night, though, was her completely amazing cover of R.E.M.'s "Nightswimming", which she did acapella by using a looping pedal and layering her voice about 12 levels deep. Extraordinary! It's not available on mp3, but there is a similar clip out on YouTube from an earlier concert which sounds pretty much the same. It's amazing. Great show, and great cause!