[Weekend Preview] Always In My Head
What can I say about India.Arie? I somehow missed her entirely until my friend Toad turned me onto her a few years ago by loaning me her debut album Acoustic Soul. (Of course, Toad is another musical story entirely, which I might go into at a later date. Short version is, he is the brother of my soul in both racing *and* music and that's a rare thing indeed.) He said to me, "That song... Brown Skin... anybody who doesn't want to just... just... get it ON... after hearing that... that person is... DEAD." Seriously.
Anyway, a few weeks ago TicketBastards emailed me (so so late!!!) that India was playing at Showcase Live in Foxboro (my favorite concert venue EVER) and I immediately snapped up a VIP booth, after some fast checking to see if anybody could go along. My concert buddy John came through, of course, and so did Julia & Neal. Thursday night was that show.
Again, what I can I say about this woman? From her albums you can tell that she has a voice like velvet, she writes heartbreaking and uplifting songs, she knows about lost love and personal growth, she's soulful and funky, and she adores and honors the r&b artists that came before her.
What all of that can't convey is the personal feeling of her live performance, the sense of intimacy and friendship you get from her on stage, how intensely she feels what she writes, and how much like church and gospel she is without ever actually preaching. And then that doesn't describe how darned *cute* she is, how vulnerable she can seem while simultaneously radiating strength and beauty, how overcome by emotion she gets while talking about her songs and her life and why she is where she is now, and how she straps butterfly wings on herself during her concerts to essentially say, "See? This is who I am." I spent 75% of the concert with tears streaming down my face. She's that emotionally powerful and real.
Musically, I was thoroughly satisfied by the show, which was much longer than I expected despite an opening act (Laura Izibor - also well worth checking out). She had a funky-ass band with drums, bass (+ occasional synth bass), acoustic & electric guitar, keys (Fender Rhodes, Hammond B3, + some new tech), and two curvy-sexy backup singer ladies with voices like funky angels. The guitar player and the keyboard player also occasionally sang, and India played keys and flute on a couple of things when she wasn't with guitar or just singing. Everybody got to show their stuff a little bit, and there was an acoustic set of just the guitar player, India, her backup girls, and eventually her mother (go mom!!!). I couldn't see the left side of the stage very well from our seats, but everybody I could see was enjoying being there, which was great because respect for the music and for the other artists are pretty much key ingredients to a successful musical outing, in my opinion.
Another thing I loved about the night was how she mixed things up in her songs. You'd have to be pretty familiar with her entire body of work (which I am) to see how much of a departure she made from perfectly crafted pop/soul tunes into tiny little mid-song jams, but there were a few gems. In one tune she made a small medley out of Slow Down from her second album, Promises from her first album, and Michael Jackson's I Can't Help It (written by Stevie Wonder and Susaye Greene) from Off The Wall. Other times she'd insert a couplet or two that wasn't in the recorded version of a song and those little rhymes were very worth listening for: e.g., telling that Nina Simone was her super-duper hero or that she looks like her daddy but she sings like her mom. :) Obviously many of the cool little changes in songs were pre-planned, but there were some places where India just went somewhere different and the band had to scramble to follow. She kept them on their toes and they were fantastic.
She ended her set by re-introducing everyone in the band once more, and then what I *think* she said next was, "And I'm Stevie Wonder!" which made everybody laugh. She did a couple of encores and she let an audience member sing, and was very gracious and sweet with him. She also told us that she and her mom designed her tour t-shirt. Earlier her mom had encouraged us to do what we can to make India's songs go to #1, and then made India tell us to buy her t-shirts, so I crept out during the last number to do that, and then returned for the end. Mmmm mmmm good.
This show was so wonderful that I've already checked to see if there's somewhere else I can see her before this tour winds down, and that's saying a lot. If you ever get a chance to see India.Arie play live, you should definitely do it. She is amazing.
Tonight Booty Vortex is @ Johnny D's in Somerville, and you should come check that out. I'm pretty sure that it won't be as inspirational as what I described above, but you'll have a good time.
One other thing about India.Arie... when I was googlestalking her last night I discovered she's the daughter of Ralph Simpson!!!! I used to watch him play all the time! My parents had season tickets to the Denver Rockets/Nuggets and I went to almost all their home games for many years of my childhood. I probably saw her at a game when she was a baby, if her mother took her and her brother there any time. I was a rabid fan of all the players and kind of a freak about the ABA in general before the ABA/NBA merge. So... neat. It's silly but this thrills me to no end.
Anyway, a few weeks ago TicketBastards emailed me (so so late!!!) that India was playing at Showcase Live in Foxboro (my favorite concert venue EVER) and I immediately snapped up a VIP booth, after some fast checking to see if anybody could go along. My concert buddy John came through, of course, and so did Julia & Neal. Thursday night was that show.
Again, what I can I say about this woman? From her albums you can tell that she has a voice like velvet, she writes heartbreaking and uplifting songs, she knows about lost love and personal growth, she's soulful and funky, and she adores and honors the r&b artists that came before her.
What all of that can't convey is the personal feeling of her live performance, the sense of intimacy and friendship you get from her on stage, how intensely she feels what she writes, and how much like church and gospel she is without ever actually preaching. And then that doesn't describe how darned *cute* she is, how vulnerable she can seem while simultaneously radiating strength and beauty, how overcome by emotion she gets while talking about her songs and her life and why she is where she is now, and how she straps butterfly wings on herself during her concerts to essentially say, "See? This is who I am." I spent 75% of the concert with tears streaming down my face. She's that emotionally powerful and real.
Musically, I was thoroughly satisfied by the show, which was much longer than I expected despite an opening act (Laura Izibor - also well worth checking out). She had a funky-ass band with drums, bass (+ occasional synth bass), acoustic & electric guitar, keys (Fender Rhodes, Hammond B3, + some new tech), and two curvy-sexy backup singer ladies with voices like funky angels. The guitar player and the keyboard player also occasionally sang, and India played keys and flute on a couple of things when she wasn't with guitar or just singing. Everybody got to show their stuff a little bit, and there was an acoustic set of just the guitar player, India, her backup girls, and eventually her mother (go mom!!!). I couldn't see the left side of the stage very well from our seats, but everybody I could see was enjoying being there, which was great because respect for the music and for the other artists are pretty much key ingredients to a successful musical outing, in my opinion.
Another thing I loved about the night was how she mixed things up in her songs. You'd have to be pretty familiar with her entire body of work (which I am) to see how much of a departure she made from perfectly crafted pop/soul tunes into tiny little mid-song jams, but there were a few gems. In one tune she made a small medley out of Slow Down from her second album, Promises from her first album, and Michael Jackson's I Can't Help It (written by Stevie Wonder and Susaye Greene) from Off The Wall. Other times she'd insert a couplet or two that wasn't in the recorded version of a song and those little rhymes were very worth listening for: e.g., telling that Nina Simone was her super-duper hero or that she looks like her daddy but she sings like her mom. :) Obviously many of the cool little changes in songs were pre-planned, but there were some places where India just went somewhere different and the band had to scramble to follow. She kept them on their toes and they were fantastic.
She ended her set by re-introducing everyone in the band once more, and then what I *think* she said next was, "And I'm Stevie Wonder!" which made everybody laugh. She did a couple of encores and she let an audience member sing, and was very gracious and sweet with him. She also told us that she and her mom designed her tour t-shirt. Earlier her mom had encouraged us to do what we can to make India's songs go to #1, and then made India tell us to buy her t-shirts, so I crept out during the last number to do that, and then returned for the end. Mmmm mmmm good.
This show was so wonderful that I've already checked to see if there's somewhere else I can see her before this tour winds down, and that's saying a lot. If you ever get a chance to see India.Arie play live, you should definitely do it. She is amazing.
Tonight Booty Vortex is @ Johnny D's in Somerville, and you should come check that out. I'm pretty sure that it won't be as inspirational as what I described above, but you'll have a good time.
One other thing about India.Arie... when I was googlestalking her last night I discovered she's the daughter of Ralph Simpson!!!! I used to watch him play all the time! My parents had season tickets to the Denver Rockets/Nuggets and I went to almost all their home games for many years of my childhood. I probably saw her at a game when she was a baby, if her mother took her and her brother there any time. I was a rabid fan of all the players and kind of a freak about the ABA in general before the ABA/NBA merge. So... neat. It's silly but this thrills me to no end.