It’s been a long time since I’ve seen classical live; forgot how much fun it can be. Hilary Hahn = damn that girl can play. Really inspiring. And the CSO played Tchaikovsky’s Pathetique (translate to Pathos/emotion/passion rather than Pathetic), which was just beautiful.

Truly bizarre concert. She has a big, bad, beautiful voice. Truly spine-tingling. But every song was truncated. Average length in concert = 90 seconds? Very bizarre. Her band is full of musicians who can clearly play many instruments, styles, etc., as they were also the opening band of the night. But during her portion, it was almost as if any bridges, or instrumental parts, or song “breathers” had been cut out. Just verse, chorus, verse, chorus, ABRUPT ENDING. At one point, my friend leaned over and said “Uh, dude? Do all the songs seem really. really. SHORT. Like they just END. all of a sudden.” I said, “Uh, dude? Yes. Yes they do.”

And, as has happened to me at this venue before which is now making me wonder if there’s some secret Christian Coalition behind it all, the end of the concert (and the only songs that were spun out to any length whatsoever) turned into a bible banger gospel session. If I wanted to hear bible music, I’d go to church!

Holy fucking crap, do these guys put on an amazing show. I really had no idea what to expect going in, but there’s nothing bad to say about processing in down the center aisle with your brass band playing to start things off, now is there. Huge variety of styles. Did covers, medleys of random hip-hop, R&B songs. Touched on their back catalog. Did slow songs, fast songs, dance songs. At one point, I looked around and it really seemed like I was the only person in the audience who didn’t know ALL the words to that particular song…that happened consistently throughout the night. Widely mixed crowd, all completely absorbed and entranced, on their feet dancing and yelling and totally involved with the tunes. We were blown away.

Wow, what a super fun kid. Just super super fun. Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious fun. Just a DJ, him and his “backup rapper” I will call the dude for lack of a better term, with a few singers coming to the stage for a song here or there. He’s cute and sassy and fun and tells funny stories and dances like just a total goofball.

I bought this album in January after sort of putting it off all fall. Then I hadn’t even listened to it before going to this concert. I’m an idiot.

When we finally find out what rare and incurable disease I am dying from, I want someone to contact the Make-a-Wish foundation and get me half-an-hour on the dancefloor with Lupe Fiasco.

Went up to Old Town to hear one of Amanda’s favorite bands Crooked Still. Rachael, I think you would really love this band! They play old American folk standards (all about bandits and hooligans and whores and murder and mayhem), with a combination of blues-y, rock, bluegrass styles. Cello, double-bass, banjo and vocalist. Very sparse arrangements yet they just fill up the place with sound. Really intriguing. Rockin’ out.

Followed by Karan Casey, an Irish vocalist, who plays a mix of traditional and new. Fuller accompaniments. Very full strong soprano. Some real heartbreakers. Quite lovely. Bonus, her pianist was a) totally hot and b) a great pianist. His little solo set in the middle of the show: the “jig” was amazing!

Bonus opener: Minibar. Later they functioned as Pete Yorn’s band. They were better as that.

The dude from Aqualung has such a pretty, pretty voice but he sounded much better at Lollapalooza which is pretty much the opposite of what you’d expect. I mean, big windy loud outdoor concert or inside at controlled venue, aren’t you expecting the latter to be the better sound? I felt like both the bass and the guitar player were turned up way too loud so whenever they joined in, you could barely hear the singer. Some songs sounded good, but most sounded muddled.

Pete Yorn, on the other hand, his songs sounded pretty good, but his stage banter? Oh so lame. (Rivaling only Rachael Yamagata in that respect. Singing = great; her banter = Not.) “I wrote this song on the East Coast. The East Coast of the United States.” Wow, so informative! And of course, to be followed by a song that never once mentions either the East Coast of the US (or anywhere else). Next one: “I learned this chord. So I wrote this song with it.” Seriously, Pete? Stick with the singin’. The singin’ sounded great although every song was definitely played as pepped up and ROCK as possible, even songs that are very slow and melancholy on the albums. It felt almost like Snow Patrol: rocking anthemed out on every song. UP UP UP. Sometimes I like a little down.

So: good, but none were great, compounded by what was thought at the time to be a caffeine withdrawal headache, or possibly an allergy headache, but turned out to be buddha-only-knows what kind of murderous horrible headache. And unexplainable, considering the SIXTEEN hours of sleep I pleasantly got the night before. Yup, 3:30 pm until 7:11 am. Woot.

Opening band The Essex Green was great: boppy, male/female vocal switches, goofy lyrics, really filling the room with fun, albeit from an almost folky perspective.

Camera Obscura sounded pretty, but man what a downer. Played (literally) only three upbeat songs. The very first one (Let’s get out of this country…) and the very last two. Midway through, the lead commented “Hmmm, didn’t quite realize when we were writing up the set list that we were playing all our slowest songs back to back…” Gee, that would’ve been a great time to call an audible and rock one out, but no such luck. Perhaps it wasn’t an intimate-enough venue for them; I imagine this would have been a great show to listen to somewhere like, for example, Joe’s Pub. But in a standing-only BIG drafty venue full of people looking for something to bring them up (or in out of the cold) it wasn’t great.

Note to self: Logan Square Auditorium: no easy transit options to get home and not easy to find a cab afterward. Maybe don’t go there when it’s below zero out next time!!!

Alison liked them better at the show she saw, if you want to read a more positive review, and FYI they did the same ‘you can call me Al’ stuff at the show I was at.