Corinne Bailey Rae Live @ Hiro Ballroom NYC

When I found out that Corinne Bailey Rae would be performing at Joe's Pub in NYC, I waited in front of my laptop continuously clicking the refresh button at 1:59pm until tickets would go on sale the very next minute. Then the very next minute came...and the tickets were ALREADY SOLD OUT!!!! WTF?! I tried and tried and tried some more, but nothing was "available". I figured there must have been some overload on the ticket site, so I rang the box office. There were only about 20 or so tickets on sale, and they were already sold out. I was gutted! Positively crushed. Then, in a freak twist of fate, I checked my e-mail and found a Giant Step invite to another Corinne show at Hiro Ballroom - on sale that very minute, so naturally, I clicked away on that only to find those tickets sold out as well. After scouring the internet for other possibly soon tour dates to no avail (oh, and working at my job....I did that too for a bit that day as I recall), I felt compelled to click the Giant Step link one more time. AND LO! What should appear, but a payment verification screen...SCORE!!! Yay me! And yay YOU! 'Cause you get to read this blog and soak up some of Corinne's awesomeness (albeit vicariously) for yourself! Cheers!

So, Hiro Ballroom...for all you NYC peeps (or my loyal bloglodytes...) you already know what it's like. For the unannointed among you, Hiro Ballroom is located in Chelsea on 9th Avenue between 16th and 17th Streets, tucked away (almost hidden) below the Maritime Hotel and its environs. The space is decked out with dark woods and lots of pretty authentic and Fauxriental (Faux+Oriental) ornamentation, lanterns, dim lights, stage one foot off the floor....which is why I got there plenty early. Wouldn't want you kids to get stuck out in the cold with no photos from the show. That would just be wrong. I couldn't do that to you...you're too cute to disappoint...squeeeeeeeeeee...

Here's some happy news for those not lucky enough to be in attendance Monday night, the entire thing was filmed for broadcast on The Artists' Den. It's a PBS series that is now also broadcast on Hulu. YAY some more! But in the meantime, I have this whole blog thing, so let's see how that all shakes out, shall we?



So, Corinne Bailey Rae....deeeeeeeeeeeeeelightful, as you may have already guessed. After much camera adjusting and guitar tuning (there was one guy in a Spice Girls World Tour 2008 t-shirt tuning all the guitars, and I swear it seemed as if the guitars were multiplying whenever we looked away...so many, many guitars to tune before the show. *sigh*), the band finally filed onto the diminutive stage and were soon joined by the lady herself (to riotous applause, I might add). Corinne, just as sweet as she wanna be, came out in a royal blue jumpsuit with loose, drapey side pockets, gold ballet flats, and twice as much hair as the last time you saw her. She said her salutations to the audience ("New York, how're you doin' tonight?!"), and wasted no time in getting the show on the road. She opened with the dancetastic Are You Here and followed it up with Paris Nights/New York Mornings. Corinne accompanied herself on acoustic and electric guitar, and both songs were a departure from the easy-breezy sound of her eponymous debut album. And then she slowed things down with Love's On It's Way, and the old school soul feel of Closer. Seriously, I had an Earth Wind & Fire moment during that last one, and believe me when I say that you have never seen or heard Corinne let loose like the end of this song. Phillip Bailey-level goodness!

Corinne Bailey Rae - Closer (live) @ Hiro Ballroom NYC

Paper Dolls opens with a beat reminiscent of The Supremes' My World Is Empty Without You, Babe, and to be honest, it's adorable how much fun Corinne seems to be having with that tambourine! Corinne told of how she co-wrote the song with her friend and former Helen bandmate who is joining her on this tour. She explained their first band, Helen ("Maybe some of you have heard of it...probably very few. It's one of those things where you just had to be there...It was part of a very localized scene. We were pretty big in our scene..." and giggles all around). In anticipation of this show, I've been devouring reviews and photos from other appearances Corinne's been making lately, and they all seemed to be going out of their way to point out how her voice seems to have taken on a deeper tone and a more melancholic air since the very untimely passing of her husband, musician Jason Rae, in March of 2008. The fact that she has written and recorded an entire album full of new songs to release and is performing them live internationally less than two years later blows my mind and is a testament to the woman's own inner strength. That being said, I think a lot of those reviewers were projecting their own emotions onto what they were hearing. I didn't find her voice to be very melancholic at all. In fact, during I'd Do It All Again (and doesn't the title just say it all?), her voice soared and she had an enormous smile across her face nearly the entire song.

Corinne Bailey Rae - I'd Do It All Again (live) @Hiro Ballroom NYC

When she followed it with her debut single, Like A Star, however, it was definitely an emotional moment for the room. Juxtaposing two songs that could seem (at least, to an outsider) to be very much of a before and an after struck a chord with everyone in the room. The crowd sang along word for word (most notably the annoying guy standing behind my cousin and myself who insisted on bumping us with his arms and hands, practically resting his camera on my cousin's head to get a shot, and had no compunction about leaning all of his baggage against our legs for convenience - it should be no great surprise that he sang so loudly and so directly into our ears it seemed he was holding out the misguided hope that if he just sang out enough, Corinne would take notice and they'd be BFF's 4-eva...some people just have no sense of intimate concert decorum. Though I longed to hear more songs from her debut album, it made me grateful that the majority of the performance was songs from the forthcoming The Sea so that he could not sing the entire show slightly off key and directly into the back of my head. And if you're reading this, Sir...yes, I mean you. But I digress...). Like A Star was succeeded by Blackest Lily, which I would like to tell you about, but can't remember because her cover of Jimi Hendrix's Little Wing came next and was off the chain! Corinne and her band began with some a capella cooing in the sweetest, liltingest harmony that you didn't see coming. Have a gander of this one on the video. It is (as ever) taken with my camera phone, but the sound quality is great and you are guaranteed some warm-fuzzies of your very own.

Corinne Bailey Rae - Little Wing (live) @Hiro Ballroom NYC

Diving For Hearts and the haunting I Would Like To Call It Beauty came on its heels. She closed out the set ("...well, maybe you'll be able to get us back out for a few more songs; but this is the official last song..." ;-]) with the title track, The Sea. Before she could begin, an eager fan thrust a gift towards the stage - a framed bit of something with a card attached ("Should I read it? I'm gonna read it...I won't read it out. Talk amongst yourselves for a minute"). It was the closest to shedding a tear that I saw her come the whole evening. She thanked the fan and set the frame down to sing the show's "official" closing number. Accompanying herself on autoharp, Corinne sang like a woman scanning the horizon for a husband lost at sea. All echoing tones and dark lyrics. When she departed the stage, the band just sort of stood around looking awkward awaiting her return for the inevitable (and already promised) encore...luckily, Corinne didn't keep us - or them - waiting more than a few moments. When the opening chords of Put Your Records On rang out, the crowd jump up and down and clapped and sang along en masse (one in particular directly into my ear...uh hemm). Being that the show was mainly new songs, I think the audience had been dying for a grasp at the more familiar...something we could all sing along to and feel a proper part of. We were not disappointed. The shows real close was with an updated version of Til It Happens To You. The guitar riffs were darker, funkier, and bluesier, as was Corinne's voice. At one point the beat switched up and got even deeper, and she let it all hang out. Like love on ya eardrum, people! It left us all wanting more, but after a performance like that, what else could there be to give? *sigh*

Corinne Bailey Rae - Til It Happens To You (live) partial @Hiro Ballroom NYC

She did mention, by the way, that she'd be back touring again in NYC in January and April, so keep your eyes open for tickets...and don't say I didn't warn you when you're five minutes late to ticket sales and find they're all sold out! Until next time, see you at the next show...

Emiliana Torrini @ Hiro Ballroom NYC

So, Hiro Ballroom. I'd never actually been there before, but it's a really cute spot! Hidden underneath the Maritime Hotel on 9th Ave. and W. 16th St., entering has the feeling of descending down into a Japanese speakeasy. The space is bedecked with low light, lanterns, and random Japanese script strewn about. It kind of feels like an old world floating ramen shop. The stage is all of 12 inches off the ground, so be sure to get there early to stake out your spot 'cause if someone's tall, monolith of a boyfriend is standing in front of you, you're pretty much screwed. That being said, I felt almost guilty standing up in front with my camera as i was flanked on both sides by some of the tiniest women I've ever seen en masse. Seriously, none of these girls could have been over 5 feet tall. Also, there was one awesome 8-year-old in a red polka dot skirt and star-covered tights who was one of the highlights of my evening (btw, I don't know what kind of connections this kid had, but she got to go backstage and meet Emilana after the show! She even drew a picture to give to Emiliana...how precious is that? Seriously). Now, on to the show!














Let's get the inevitable comparisons to Bjork out of the way now. There's something about Icelanders that will always bear some resemblance to the country's most famous pop/alternative export, Bjork. For those that have never heard of Emiliana Torrini until now (or think they haven't), she's the one who did that hauntingly beautiful rendition of Golum's Song for the Lord Of The Rings film that played during the end credits. You know, that song you were positive was Bjork? Yeah, that was Emiliana. And there really is a quality to her voice that is Bjork-like, but more to the point, uniquely Icelandic. Icelanders can cram more emotion into a single note than singers from other places. More imporantly, Icelanders have the ability to convey joy through song more truthfully, more vividly than musicians/singers from anywhere else on the planet (at least that I've heard anyway). But where Bjork's voice is always simmering on the edge of an explosion, Emiliana's voice is past all that tension and lets out a big sigh of relief. Her voice is powerful, but so serene...If you close your eyes while listening to her sing, it feels like your flying or floating...or riding your bike on a breezy, early summer afternoon...or floating on your back in the middle of a lake with the sun full on your face. It's that good. Really. The saddest part of the night was that she didn't perform any songs from her debut album, Love In The Time Of Science, because she really, truly didn't think anyone had heard it. She was more than a little bit surprised to hear people from the crowd shouting out requests from said debut ("Fingertips!", "Tuna Fish!") at every in-between song space during the evening. "Unemployed In Summertime" is a personal favorite of mine...

Perhaps the thing that makes the show so moving is that as lost in the songs as the crowd gets, Emiliana gets just as lost. It might almost seem as though she'd forgotten about the audience altogether if it weren't for the fact that the stage is only 12 inches off the floor and she could probably feel us all breathing on her. Watching Emiliana perform, it's nearly impossible to not to vibrate off the floor with glee. She pauses between songs to chat with the band in Icelandic ("Haha! Secret code language!"), sip a Corona, and tell stories about her friends who all seem to think that the songs are about them...except for the ones that the songs are actually about. They just think they're really great songs. The breaks are just as much for the band to re-tune or switch instruments as they are to give the crowd a chance to chat and marvel over how amazing and sweet Emiliana is (and to just stop and let out its collective breath after having held it for the length of the last song). But I digress...When she launches into the next song, even the quietest song, it's with a level of intensity that makes the audience crane forward in unison in the hope that reaching physically forward will get them just a little bit deeper into the music; only to realise just how close they already are to Emiliana, and pull back just just enough to give her room to keep working and casting her spell over them all.

In short, if Emiliana Torrini is performing anywhere close to where you live, you need to do whatever it is you need to do to go and see her happen. You will not be disappointed.