The Most Radiant and Under-appreciated In Her Time Wife of Wives and I went to see Brandi Carlisle and Ray Lamontagne. In part, we did this because no one cool comes to Waterbury, despite our having an awesome venue. So when someone cool DOES come, we jump like salmon.
Both acts were awesome, but in such strikingly different ways. Carlisle came out and was engaged with the audience, even belting out one song without benefit of amps. And we heard it way up in the cheap seats.
She got a nice three part harmony with the audience, then did a real nice cover of an old Laura Branigan tune, Forever Young, but stripped down of its '80s fluff. Really a tremendous set.
Ray Lamontagne came out and barely said a word to the audience the whole time. When he did - a string broke and he didn't have a back-up - he was great. Witty and understated. But he clearly wanted to let his music do the talking. He has such an expressive voice when singing, I guess he wanted that to be his communication with the audience. You get a sense of his reticence here:
He did a funked up number that was really good, and he has the voice to do more stuff like that, but I wonder if he has the temperament.
Could have used a horn section like this one:
Anyway, it was nice to go on a "date" date.
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