At first I had my doubts about whether or not it would be a sold out show like the rest of the shows on her tour. Content watching from my seat in the second row of the balcony, my doubts fizzled away. The large orchestra pit was entirely jam-packed by the time the opening act, Greg Laswell, (Michaelson‘s husband!) took to the stage, welcomed by a mighty applause.
Laswell established a great connection with the audience from the get-go, commenting on how Mainers always takes such pride in saying where they’re from, in a good way, unlike New Yorkers. His music was okay, but his humor and short stories between his pieces kept me interested.
Michaelson and her band-mates came onstage to the blasting of Ke$ha’s “Blow.” I thought it was an odd choice at first, but it actually made a surprisingly good transition into her band’s intense performance of “Fire.” They kept the energy going as a band for a few more songs before Michaelson delivered a few songs on her own, which was a well-timed break in the general noise level that I greatly appreciated. The band returned for Michaelson’s well-known cover of Rihanna’s “We Found Love,” which got the crowd pumping and ready for a punk-rock rendition of her “The Way I Am,” an awesome display of Michaelson’s versatility that I had never seen before. She said her first good-byes to the audience and the continuous applause and cheering that ensued (to get her back on-stage) was deafening inside that theater. Mind you, the 2,000 some-odd audience probably had an 8:1 girl to guy ratio, and the majority of the females were high school or college-age. I feel a little sorry for my ears.
Michaelson came back and wrapped up the concert with four or five of her “oldies.” I had been wondering why those crowd-pleasers hadn’t come up earlier, but after hearing how the audience drowned out her voice by joining in, it all made a lot more sense. My hat goes off to whoever arranged the set-list.
The one thing that detracted from the concert for me was the amount of time it took before Michaelson actually came on stage. The tickets said doors/show at 7:00 PM, but the opening act started at 8:00PM, and although that wrapped up in about 40 minutes, it was well past 9PM before Michaelson and her band-mates actually took to the stage for about two hours. I realize that this is fairly typical timing for a show like this, but I don’t understand why making the audience wait so long has become the norm.
All in all, however, it was a great show that exceeded my expectations and makes me want to listen to some more Ingrid!
(Ingrid Michaelson’s next shows take place in Norfolk, Virginia; Red Bank, NJ; and Amagansett, NY — see here.)
