Indy Live Music

We were pretty excited about getting to see Ingrid at the Vogue as our first show back from Bonnaroo. It was because of Bonnaroo that we were convinced to see the show in the first place...we were captivated by how funny and personable she was onstage.

The show begins with opener, Matt Morris. His new album, When Everything Breaks Open, is a pretty new release and one of the champion projects from the Tennman label, which was founded by Justin Timberlake. You may never have guessed it, but Matt and Justin were cast-mates on The All New Mickey Mouse Club...you know, that show that was a breeding ground for all those TRL superstars from the late 90's. Anyways, Morris is a pretty talented songwriter and has helped pen songs like "Miss Independent" for Kelly Clarkson, and "(Another Song) All Over Again" for Timberlake's Futuresex/Lovesounds album. And that fact that he is a songwriter is what stood out in his performance this evening at the Vogue. He simply brought a couple of other band guys to play with him and opened up the show with 2 very funk-soul sounding songs, then launched into the indie/songwriter mode. He played "In This House," "Money," and "Live Forever," which is the first single from his new album.

Not too long after Morris, Ingrid Michaelson hits the stage and the crowd had such a warm response to her. She opened up with the first track from her newest album, a song called "Soldier". First thing that I noticed was right from the start, Ingrid and her band are sounding amazing, with the harmony sounding perfect, which gives me chills from the get go. And with perfect timing, Ingrid and the band insert lyrics from "Poker Face" into the harmony. It's an excellent start to the show. And of course, it doesn't take long for Ingrid to show off her comedic skills. She told the crowd how she was all bummed out because it was raining and she didn't think anyone would come to the show. She continued with an excellent set list that included "Parachute", "The Hat", in which Ingrid had the whole crowd doing choreography. She told some great stories, one in particular about how she has been asked to speak at a graduation ceremony and the story she was going to tell about how she threw water on some dumb boys at at stoplight that ultimately had no moral. Also, as she was interacting with the crowd, she made up a song on the spot about someone in the crowd sitting on a vibrating speaker named Jean and the song turned into "Kinky Jean"...and all I could think was "God, I hope someone is taping this and putting it on YouTube tomorrow."

Ingrid continued to entertain us musically and comedically, and did more songs such as a cover of "Creep." One of our favorite moments was when the band sang a song called "Let's Get Rich" and all the members of the band took turn singing parts into the microphone. The song is so incredibly sweet. In the middle of the song, as Ingrid's guitar player, Bess Rogers, was singing, we find out that she is going to marry Chris Kuffner, the bass player. They shared a little smooch onstage and it was just the cutest moment of the show.

The moment we were looking forward to the most was when Ingrid did a cover of "Toxic," by Britney Spears, who she introduced as an up and coming singer songwriter. The cover included choreography, as well. Ingrid also included both versions of her song "The Way I Am"...one was the album version and the other was the full blown rock and roll version...either way, the song is great.

All in all, I have to say that I've felt lukewarm about Ingrid's music when I'm just hanging out and listening to it, but upon seeing her live, I really appreciate her. She is not the fabulous diva girl that so many artists feel they have to be. Instead, she is genuine, humble, morose at times, and optimistic at others...and we love all of those because it is a reflection that is not so different from our own. We look forward to seeing her again sometime soon and listening to her music with new insight.

Musically, plans were up in the air for the last day of Bonnaroo.  Headed to Centeroo early to fill our Camelbak's up with water before the lines got really long.  Oh, I'm getting ahead of myself...on our way down there we stopped to get fried pickles (one of our all-time favorite foods), and they were absolutely delicious - even better than in they are in the Irish Pub in my old college town.  Mmmm...

Food isn't something we've discussed much in this series of Bonnaroo blogs as of yet.  Mostly because, in order to curb expenses, we packed our own peanut butter sandwiches, chips, and carrots for lunch every day.  We ended up buying something in Centeroo every night for dinner, trying two vegetarian burritos, some cheddar and jalepeno hush puppies (fantastic!), pizza, and a noodle bowl.  The hush puppies and noodle bowl with it's spicy sauce were the most stand-out dishes of the weekend.  But I digress...this is a music blog afterall!

Totally recommend seeing Ingrid Michaelson live if you ever get the chance.  She performed her new rock version of "The Way I Am", some other great songs with audience participation, such as "Mountain and The Sea", "The Hat", and of course, her infamous cover of Britney Spears' "Toxic".  That number is absolutely hilarious when it comes to the dancing at the end.  That performance solidified our plans for that coming Tuesday night to go see her at The Vogue back in Indianapolis.

So the bouncers decide to just close the balcony since there weren't all that many tickets sold for this show. Which I can't blame them for doing, but I'd bet that everyone could have had a seat if they had allowed people to go upstairs. And interestingly enough, we weren't met with the metal detectors and strict ID policies that we were becoming accustomed to at The Vogue...plus actual beer bottles were handed out during the evening, instead of pouring it into a plastic cup.  Certainly says something about at least the perception of hard rock/rap crowds vs. singer/songwriter crowds...

• Songbird
• Grain of Sand
• 75 and Sunny - From the album Sexton produced

Then came Martin Sexton (whom we heard a few audience members refer to as "Marty", like a favorite uncle).  If you aren't familiar with Martin Sexton's music - the guy has a big voice, and can even act as a human drum-kit when necessary.  He doesn't require a band at all, but integrated the Ryan Montbleau band into some of his songs seamlessly.  Martin's singer/songwriter style definitely has a blues and soul vibe to it.  He's a great musician, and kept the audience engaged and entertained throughout the entire set plus an encore.  Some highlights from his set:

• Can't Stop Thinking About You
• Chasin' Dreams - About a guy quitting a high-paid job to do the job he always dreamed of as a kid.
• Stick Around
• My Faith Is Gone - Sexton wrote this when he was a hungry street-singer in Cambridge in 1991, and the government told them they couldn't sing on the streets anymore.
• Beast in Me - This was part of the encore, and he broke into a version of "Shake Your Body (Down to the Ground)" by The Jackson's in the middle.

This show was our first show back at the Vogue following the Bone Thugs show that ended up being quite the letdown. As we started walking towards the venue, we noticed that there was an impressive line forming before the doors opened. It was quite the interesting crowd, made up of mostly guys in their 20's and 30's. The ladies were pretty seriously outnumbered and I could only imagine that the ladies that were there were probably dragged to the show by a boyfriend. So, the doors open and we are once again wanded down by the metal detector and patted down for security. This time we had to produce two pieces of identification to get in and Erica and I hypothesized for a while why this might have been.

The first band to come up was Caverns, a sort of progressive/math rock band from D.C., made up of 3 guys who played piano, drums, and electric guitar. First thing we obviously noticed if anyone else out there is familiar with this band, is that there are no words. These guys were interesting in the fact that it is pretty obvious that there are classical elements that they insert into their music. I think what I liked about this band, other than the fact that it was something different, is that the use of the piano was not afterthought or a gimmick. In fact, I think the piano element is the strongest part of their live presentation; it thunders throughout the guitar riffs and makes the music work. I understand that this is a relatively new band and they certainly have a few technical aspects of their music to tighten up, but it's pretty obvious that they have some potential to offer. After all, the headliners, Clutch, invited them to be a part of the tour because they genuinely like their music. Their first album is called "Kittens!," so check it out and keep an eye out for these guys.

Next up was Danko Jones. I had heard of this band before, but this was my first experience seeing them live. The band has a lot of energy and it's contagious. The crowd seemed really into the band and seemed to be familiar with the songs. The frontman, who lends his name to the band, knew what to say to this crowd to get them going. He told us before a song called "Rock Shit Hot" that the song was supposed to give us rock n roll hemorrhoids. The crowd responded pretty well to any sort of profanity. Danko Jones showed us some pretty great guitar playing and definitely knew how to get the crowd revved up for Clutch. Perhaps my favorite song of theirs from the set was "Makes Me Forget My Name." Danko is definitely a top notch performer and his voice is actually quite good underneath the typical screaming and yelling that this genre of music presents. I mean, the guy even has a spoken word album, which doesn't happen unless you have a voice that is as great as James Earl Jones. The band has quite a following in Europe and has played a number of well known festivals. They put on a good show and I think I'm actually pretty interested in hearing more from them and maybe even getting some music from them. Mission accomplished.

So Clutch takes the stage and launches into their set with a pretty long musical intro. It was easy to pick out that they have some blues roots and folk elements in their music. This really isn't your typical heavy metal band. To be honest, I think there is a lot of intellectual aspects of their music and people are starting to catch on to that, even though the band has been around for over 10 years. They have some pretty dark and yet humorous lyrics...and we heard a little of that as they played a song about anthrax. Their most recent album was released in July of 2009 and is called "Strange Cousins From the West".  The album design and the new logo of the band is a play off of middle eastern culture and language. It apparently got pretty decent critical reviews at the time of release and the band has moved quite a few copies of the album since.

Some things to note about this point of the show is that I was completely distracted for a number of reasons. First of all, there was a pretty distracting couple dancing in a ridiculously raunchy manner up in the balcony next to us. Second, a couple of fights broke out on the floor when some guys were moshing and pretty much running wild into a couple of girls on the floor. But the quick security guys at the Vogue had it handled within minutes, by means of dragging the guy out of the venue. There were a couple of crowd surfing incidents, with one failing when the guy who was surfing fell through a hole in the crowd. At this point, I was just watching the crowd, which seemed more entertaining than the band at times. When I listen to "Strange Cousins From the West" on my iPhone, I really enjoy it. However, upon hearing it live, I kind of felt like all the songs sounded the same. I'm not sure if this is because their music does have that intellectual element to it, which for me, lends itself towards a more personal environment where I can take it all in.

One of the coolest things about this band is that it seems that anyone you talk to who does know Clutch and their music...well, they just have nothing but good things to say about the guys. You hear things like "They have integrity," and "They are the real people," which I think is probably hard to come by in this genre. And after seeing this show, I would have to say that I can see that in them. They are not too showy, they don't have some crazy dramatic production, or even jump around the stage as one might expect. They play solid music and interact with their fans. It was refreshing in a sense to experience this at a rock show. Overall, it was a pretty good show and though I'm not 100% sold on going to see them live again, I think I am interested in Clutch's music and look forward to what they can create in the future.

Ok, I'll admit - buying tickets to this show was more than a bit of a crapshoot.  I loved Bone Thugs N Harmony's debut album, E 1999 Eternal.  Granted, I was a very different person at the time with different musical tastes.  But I thought the album had great rhythms and at least semi-intelligent lyrics.  So I was a bit excited to see what Bone Thugs had been up to since then, and hear them perform some of these 'classics' live.

Around 8:00, DJ Indiana Jones comes out on stage and starts "spinning".  (Here's where I'll show my lack of hip hop cred, I hope I'm using the correct lingo).  He plays a lot of new stuff that I haven't heard, but the audience sings along every once in a while and seems mildly entertained.  Every once in a while, he throws in an "old school" song, ala DMX, that I actually know the words to.  All-in-all, the crowd is very disengaged at this point.

• It's good to know that sagging your pants is still in style in the hip hop community, even though baggy pants have been traded in for skinny jeans to keep up with the times.
• Rappers have big posse's who hang out just backstage, sometimes spilling onstage.  Some of them even travel around the stage videotaping every portion of their show.
• Don't even bother trying to tell a crowd at a hip-hop show in a bar that this is a non-smoking show.  Your efforts to stop them will prove to be futile.
• Rappers may claim that they get a bad 'rap' (no pun intended), but if this show was any indication of the norm, they perpetuate their own stereotypes.

Graham Colton started off the show. It was just him and his guitar to get the crowd warmed up. Colton has a very clear, strong voice, and played his songs very well. His vocal range reminded me of Billie Joe Armstrong from Green Day, but obviously a little softer. One thing I loved about Graham Colton's material is that it all sounded familiar, as in it is stuff that should be played on the radio.

Next up was Stephen Kellogg and the 6ers. It was easy to tell that for some people in the audience, they were the band they were there to see. The collective energy of the crowd went up throughout their set. The sound was great and they showed off their fantastic harmonizing abilities. In a way, this band had a bit of a country feel, maybe more of a southern rock thing, but regardless, they got the crowd riled up in a good way.

• Wagon Wheel - showed off the harmonies.
• You Changed - just an excellent song that is easy to relate to.
• This is My Life - they said it was their life story.
• I Never Wanna Get Old - showed off their "Jonas Bros. choreography" and dancing skills.
• The Bear - excellent tuba solo.
• On Fathers Day - even though the crowd was riled up, Kellogg got them to quiet down a little as he sang this song about being a dad on the road.
• Thirteen - Kit "Goose" Karlson, who plays bass, tuba, and keys physically showed his love for the audience and did an amazing version of a Chris Farley inspired dance. And in the middle of all the music, the band broke out into some Kriss Kross "I Missed the Bus," and "Jump Jump."

When Needtobreathe took the stage, the crowd was ready for them. Their stage set up was pretty cool: they had 4 big LCD screens covered by silkscreen portraits of people from the 1800's, with black strips over their eyes. It was a pretty cool effect and certainly the first time I had ever seen such a set up in a place like the Vogue. Even though it was cool, when the effects on the LCDs started up, they were hard to see, probably because they were meant for bigger venues. Regardless, it definitely gave them a true rock show feel. Perhaps this is a great time for Needtobreathe to get big, because they certainly have an audience, and their sound is very similar to Kings of Leon. They have great stage presence and it's easy to tell they've been playing together for a long time.

• The Outsiders
• Locking Me Up - used the distortion mic and sounded great.
• More Time - one of their more popular songs; could hear the crowd singing just as loud as the band.
• Girl Named Tennessee
• Stones Over Rushing Water - Bear Rinehart, the lead singer, talked about how grateful the band is to be here. He remembered playing to 50 people, then 100, then 200, and tonights show was packed (probably in the 500 plus).
• I Believe In a Better Way - added in a little version of "Get Back to Where You Once Belonged."
• Lay em Down
• Through Smoke
• Washed By the Water - had a cool southern rock feel and they played it completely unplugged. The crowd loved it and they managed to throw in a little bit of the Stones "You Can't Always Get What You Want."