Back in January 2006, I enjoyed one of the best live music events of my life when I watched Brandi Carlile play in the very intimate confines of the Cactus Cafe in Austin.
Last night, my wife and I went downtown to The Parish Room on 6th St. to watch Brandi on the first week touring for her new album The Story.
A few notes about the show (some good and some not-so-good):
- The Parish Room has some amazingly good accoustics — Brandi and the twins sounded amazing in here, especially since they added a drummer, a cello player, and Gibb Droll on guitar since I saw them at the Cactus.
- With a mass of online and pre-sales, the show sold out within minutes of the doors opening at 8:00, resulting in a bunch of dissapointed ladies.
- Speaking of the ladies — I had no idea that Brandi had such an enourmous lesbian following. A rough estimate of the crowd — I’d say that at least 65-70% were women. And most were couples or in large groups. Don’t ask how I knew they were lesbians — sometimes it’s Just. That. Obvious.
And the bad:
- The Parish Room doesn’t have chairs. Or tables. Just a bar in the back, a decent sized stage up front, and a smaller side bar. There is a bench seat running the length of each side wall…but these were all fully seated by the time we made it upstairs (the bench seats probably provided seating for a total of about 30 people of the several hundered who were there. Maybe it’s because I’m older than 22 — but when I go out to see live music these days, I’d prefer to be able to sit down while I enjoy the music. Especially since we arrived just after 8:00, and the music didn’t end until midnight. As much as I liked the room itself, unless I find out that they’ve put in chairs and tables, we won’t go back. I don’t care if Elvis and John Lennon are brought back from life and are playing for one night only — if it’s at the Parish Room, I won’t go.
- The crowd — most of the audience were obviously Brandi fans, and were there to enjoy the music. But a bunch of people — mostly those standing on the fringes of the crowd and in the back of the room — seemed to be there just to hang out and chat with there friends. Loudly. At times it seems that the group of 5-6 women-with-short-hair-and-flannel-shirts (no, this is not a sexist, anti-gay stereotype; it’s an exact and accurate description of exactly how they looked and what they were wearing) who were standing right next to us were more intent with trying to talk over the music, not listen to the music.
- Compared with the much more intimate (with chairs) Cactus Cafe, and its much more polite, attentive, and appreciative crowd, I was a little dissapointed with the atmosphere at this show.
But Brandi rocked it. It was the first time I’ve seen a lead female cover Johnny Cash (Folsom Prison Blues), and she knocked it out of the park. Joaquine Phoenix should have been as convincing. Of course she wrapped the show the same way she did at the Cactus last year: on stage by herself and her acoustic guitar, and blowing Jeff Buckley’s Hallelujah out of the water.
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Perhaps the strongest song of the night was The Story (go to Brandi’s MySpace page to listen to it and a few other songs). During the show, Brandi announced that the video for The Story was going to debut on tonight’s episode of Grey’s Anatomy. I’m guessing that can’t be bad for record sales.
I would say 99% of her following is Lesbians…. don’t wonder why, she just touches women’s hearts quick and deep…
April 12, 2007 » Brandi Carlile at the Parish Room
Left by Austin Bloggers Metablog on April 13th, 2007 at 10:19 am