Two reasons why…
“Hot” male musicians or great female vocalist concerts suck: screaming 19 year old girls. Don’t get me wrong, it won’t stop me from an exceptional show put on by some amazing musicians, in both recent cases that being Imogen Heap (last night) and Regina Spektor, both amazing female vocalists, but both offer SO much more than that. As for “Hot” male musicians, I guess maybe NIN’s frontman Trent Reznor is in that category, but thankfully most teenage girls are over him (he’s a little older these days).
So Webster Hall, standing in the rain for like a half hour waiting to get inside, looking at many many young people taking pictures of themselves, wearing the same boots together, oogling the college boys throwing footballs, talking about drinking, music, weed, sex, etc (ok, I think some of them were anyway). Oh and standing behind smokers. It all makes you feel young again, or maybe that’s what I wanted to think, but really the ‘crotchity old guy’ side was coming out a little more. Oh well, we endured it, and got in!
First went on this guy, Levi, who played some straight up guitar songs, then played some looping effects created by the guitar, bows, melodica, etc. He did a pretty cool rendition of a Radiohead song (name escapes me, off of Kid A). But he was a bit full of himself. Oh well.
NEXT came Kid Beyond! If I had any hope in making a big career out of beatboxing on stage… and I did… this guy dashed that all to bits. Alas. He was insane! Any sound, noise, bleep, scratch, sample, synth, drums, harmonica, etc. was ALL done proudly by his very own human lips, tongue, vocals, and at times odd hand jestures. He even threw in some of NIN’s ‘Closer’! Truly incredible. He went on to loop himself with rich bass lines, drums, trance lines, echo-y vocals, etc. He really stole the show.
Just when you were so overwhelmed by great talent, or your feet and legs were about to collapse as Margaux’s and mine were, Imogen comes out. This woman not only is truly talented in every sense of the word, but is amazingly graceful and has a very friendly attitude towards her audience. She had a whole setup on stage, a clear ‘piano’ that housed her electronic gear like her electric piano, computer screen (connected to a Mac running Abelton Live and Pro Tools), a drum machine, a smaller keyboard, and a mixer. To the right of her was another setup that included a keytar, a Korg controller, a loop machine, and some other gadgetry I couldn’t see.
She came out with the Korg controller strapped around her, dressed in 1700s garb all pink, with feathers in her hair. I heard someone before the concert say how tall she was, but in real life ‘tall’ didn’t do it justice. She was massive! And her hair went well above her head with all the feathers! Very pretty as well. After the first song or so she introduced all her instruments (which is why I knew most of what she had, I figured out the rest).
She started bursting into songs of the new album, and brought up the band who included a upright bassist and percussionist, Kid Beyond, and that other act Levi. Kid Beyond seriously kicked out all the beats to her songs, nearly complete replicas of the album tracks. It was an amazing performance overall. I was breathlessly giddy at times, holding Margaux and thinking back to times of ’skipping’ work to stay one more day upstate, and see my love even if for just a few hours. Seriously wonderful.
Despite all the screams in the middle of pared down songs, some oddball yelling ‘God save the Queen’ (wish someone woulda saved us from him), and many other annoyances including nowhere to sit, and many people running into us or talking on their cell phones (I think we ARE getting old!); I would say overall a splendid performance that did not let us down. It’s amazing seeing this girl run around on stage to play something different at every turn, having her band looking at her for every move, and pull off some downright beautiful vocals. She demands your attention in a loving way, and when she ’screws up’ at the beginning with the wrong loop or sound, you can’t help but to forgive thinking “Fuck, there ain’t no one here tonight that can pull off that act. Period.” Cheers Immi!
Her album at iTunes: Speak For Yourself
View Kid Beyond’s Website
1 comment November 13th, 2006
