Ingrid Michaelson is VIC-torious
Wednesday night I attended the Ingrid Michaelson concert at the Vic with my little sister. She is a huge fan of singer-songwriter type of music and she asked me months ago if I would be interested in attending.
“Come on, it’s only $26,” she whined.
“But it’s on a school night,” I replied. I’m getting old and need my sleep after all.
“Puh-lease?” she begged. I had to consent. That’s what big sisters do I guess.
Well, the night of October 20th rolled around, and being that the concert was at the Vic, I did my best to look like a hipster while coming straight from work. I thought I could accomplish this by having my bra straps showing and by pairing my lime green Vans circa 1997 with a dress. Eh. I was mildly successful. I think I needed more tattoos.
Image courtesy of Peacefist.com
Entering the Vic I soon realized it was general admission, standing room only. Awesome. That means my old self would be experiencing back pain throughout the evening. What the crap happened to all the seats? And where’s my glass of warm milk?
Soon enough, the opening act came out, two Irish gents with a guitar and piano. The duo was called the Guggenheim Grotto and was surprisingly good. I’ve been to many a concert where the opening act was terrible and would make your ears bleed, but this was not the case last night. My favorite song of theirs involved the repetition of the phrase “Let’s get naked and get under the sheets.”
Ingrid finally came on stage at 8:00pm – she sure knows how to make an entrance.
About 1 minute before they came on stage, Led Zeppelin’s song “Kashmir” started blaring over the speakers. Ah, some old people music. I was beginning to feel more comfortable. Next thing I knew, 6 people came out on stage in long black robes – they threw them off violently and Ingrid started screeching into the microphone along with Robert Plant. It was awesome.
Ingrid singing, just not at the Vic – photo from her website
The rest of her set was phenomenal. Not only is she hysterical (she told a funny Twitter shout out story about LeAnn Rhymes), but her music is very creative. Some of the highlights of the show included:
- A group hug scene with her band mates during “You and I”
- The use of a looping tool to play us her rendition of the REM song “Nightswimming”; she did this entire set acapella which added to its awesomeness
- Ending the concert with a punk-rock, head banging rendition of “The Way I Am”
What added to her coolness was that she totally acknowledged how lame the encore bit is. She called it like it is; she wasn’t going to feign surprise at us wanting her to come back out and play a few more songs, nor was she going to make us stand there like monkeys and clap for 10 minutes. To that I say, bless your heart, Ingrid.
All in all, I had a really great time and I’m glad my sister dragged me out of the house on a Wednesday night. It was beyond worth the $26 paid and Ingrid not only sang, but sang well (unlike some people, *cough cough* Britney Spears). I am looking forward to when she is uber-famous and I can say, “I saw her at the Vic way back when….”
~Corie Scarpaci
