Brandi Carlile, A Fine Frenzy live!
Brandi Carlile/A Fine Frenzy
House Of Blues, Chicago
Thursday, October 11, 2007
Kicking off a two-night stand at House Of Blues, ingénue Brandi Carlile enticed the rowdy crowd to put up or shut up when she veered dangerously close to the lip of the stage and belted out a chugging new tune, “How These Days Grow Long,” completely unplugged. Flanked by her ever-present sidekicks, “The Twins” (brothers Tim and Phil Hanseroth) on guitar and bass respectively, Carlile’s crystalline voice soared to the rafters. For a glorious four-minute romp, the room held their collective breath. Sadly, the reprieve from the barfly chatterboxes didn’t last long. Not that Carlile, her imposing identical songwriting partners, and cellist Josh Neumann noticed.
Promoting The Story, Carlile’s sophomore effort on Columbia, this tour finds the rural Washington-reared singer taking command of the stage and shifting from electric to acoustic guitar and piano with authority. Under famed producer T-Bone Burnett’s tutelage, Carlile and her cohorts recorded The Story completely live, and the shows serve as an extension of those sessions. Shimmering three-part harmonies swaddled “Cannonball” in a seamless embrace, while on “Turpentine” Carlile lead the inaugural practice of the “Chicago House Of Blues Choir” as she so dubbed the struggling crowd who scrambled to sing along with the high notes.
During the title track most famously featured on ABC’s “Grey’s Anatomy,” Carlile alternated between her lilting Neko Case-like twang and an animalistic bellow. The cracks in her voice blaze more brightly than the vocals of most of her peer group, and she charismatically pushes the notes to the limit, which only highlights the forlorn material. Carlile does possess a self-effacing streak manifested itself in a cheeky, edited version of Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody.”
Most of the set focused on The Story, but Carlile reveled in disparate cover songs. From leading the band as if possessed by the Man In Black’s ghost during “Folsom Prison Blues” to closing the night solo with Jeff Buckley’s rendition of “Hallelujah” to warm the bones of those exiting out into the chilled night, Carlile wore her heroes on her sleeve and easily filled their shoes.
Twenty-two-year old opener Alison Sudol sped through a short list of tunes off her debut One Cell In The Sea (Capitol) with a spunky, wide-eyed enthusiasm missing from her recent stilted television performances. Billed as A Fine Frenzy, the fiery-haired singer/pianist, along with her drummer/guitarist and keyboardist, delved into the album’s best tracks, including the destined-for-movie-soundtracks lament, “Almost Lover.” Less tortured than Fiona Apple and more quirky than Regina Spektor, Sudol isn’t reinventing the wheel with her ivory tinkling shtick, and she’s too wet behind the ears to command an audience, but that voice – once heard live, the album fails miserably to compare. Where’s T-Bone when you need him?
– Janine Schaults
Category: Live Reviews, Weekly
