the hotel cafe tour 2008

Surprise, surprise... I have once again been a blogging slacker and it has been a while. Lindsey and I did go to a concert this past weekend which was for sure worth blogging about. It was at the Avalon, some old movie theater on State Street and 3300 S.. The location did not sound too promising and I had never attended a concert there before so, I was a little bit nervous as to what we would find. Shockingly, I liked it there. There were benches to sit on and because it was an old movie theater, where you sat was on a slight incline-- so even if you were back a ways you could still see. The stage was up reasonably high as well, which always helps if you are not right up front. I was also a little bit nervous because the tour consisted of five artists and I was really only going for one of the five. The good news... they all proved entertaining. I think every artist had at least one song that I left wanting to download from i-tunes. Ingrid Michaelson, the artist I was initially going for, was phenomenal. She could not have been better. There are a few things that I believe make a concert good. I think you need to not only sing well, but be entertaining, they are two different things. This sounds a little bit silly, I am aware, but it is nice to leave a concert and feel like the artist considered the audience real people. So many times concerts feel so rehearsed and robotic...like the audience is just a prop for a job. Ingrid Michaelson said she had only been touring for a few months and I think there is a joy that you can sense from someone who truly loves what they are doing and have not let performing just become routine and mindless. I can only imagine it is a wonderful feeling to be able to stop and listen to an audience sing the chorus of a song you wrote. It was a great night!