On Monday I went to see Imogen Heap at the Royal Oak Music Theater. The following day I had to write a friend to tell her how the show went. This was the email. It's a little personal, but I think it explains my take on the concert pretty well.
Mariam,
There were a lot of words going through my head last night, but one kept coming up: wow.
We walk in and this guy is playing a guitar with a violin bow. The first song was okay, but it
quickly went down hill. He had some issues with his microphone setup & his looping machine didn't
seem to pick up much of the audio spectrum. I thought, "okay, good. Mariam's not missing anything."
He finally redeemed himself by the last song. It had some pretty good riffs & his looping
troubles seemed to be solved. Levi *something*...in the top 10 for Folk in iTunes.
The stage setup was quite simple. It included several rows of, what looked to be Christmas lights,
here & there. Her plexi-glass piano/keyboard was slightly off-center. My favorite part of the
staging had to be the Christmas tree, off to the side, topped with a lit, white corset.
The next guy came out with mouth a'blazin. The first song was with any loop machines or
instruments. All beatbox, nothing else. I believe the audience was pleasantly surprised. I even
noticed some Nine Inch Nails within that first song. The next 4 songs were awesome. He wound up
the loop machine with more beatbox & managed to sing some pretty good melodies on top. Needless to
say, we were all pretty impressed. I was impressed enough to bum some money to buy his CD. His
name was Kid Beyond.
Now, because I am only familiar Imogen, & not an expert, I have to apologize in advance. She
actually started the first song in the audience & even walked all the way up into the bar area. She
of course ended the song on stage. She then moved on to introducing the us to "the band." Which
was her keyboards looping machines & effects doodads. You have to picture he tall, lanky body
coupled with the mumbling British accent. In fact, she would mumble something in-between each song.
It took some real concentration to catch most of it.
The next two songs involved both Levi & Kid Beyond, & two other people. I thought it was very cool
how Kid Beyond did percussion while Levi played guitar. I think that's why they were the opening
act. T'was an *Oh!* moment for me. After two upbeat songs she dismissed the band and played a
couple slow tunes, one of which from Frou Frou, Let Go. During one song there was this girl about
30 feet up from me, who could contain herself & decided to sing along with her. I think you can
gather, that if I heard her over Imogen (who was amplified mind you), then... Imogen made a point
to say something. "As a general rule, I'm supposed to be louder than you. On that last song, there
was one girl..." Was pretty funny. The audience cheered.
Right before the "last song" she announced it just that way, quotes and all. She made a comment
like "You guys are supposed to say 'No, don't go!'" That "joke" wasn't well received. But we made
up for it right after, by the thunderous applause. She came back out and said, "You didn't expect
me to go without doing that one song?" (or something to that effect) She didn't even need to
announce it. It was Hide And Seek. Just her standing in the center with a strap-on keyboard. One
single light overhead. Very well done.
(warning: cheeziness ahead) I was really impressed. I guess I didn't really know what to expect.
And in fact, her type of music I wouldn't say is my favorite by any means. I now consider myself a
convert. I think it's a clue when you find yourself most brought to tears by a song. It actually
got me thinking about how God uses music in my life. I even went as far as to reminisce about the
courtship of Laura & me, but that's another story.
Here are a few of the songs she did:
- -Headlock
- -Goodnight And Go
- -Have You Got In You
- -Come Here Boy
- -Hide And Seek
That's all I can put together for now. I hope you get the idea. Here are some pictures of the
show.
Mark
Oh, by the way, I almost text'd you last night to say, I understand where you get your inspiration
from. I totally got the correlation. Take care.
As you can see, I had a pretty good time. I later went on to say that this was one of the best shows I've ever seen; right up there with Metallica in the 90s.
