lifeblood: listlogs: 2009v11n034-news

ig-news-digest          tuesday, may 12 2009          volume 11 : number 034

today's subjects:
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  [ig-news] seattle weekly concert review  [sherlyn koo <sherlyn@pixelopolis]

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date: tue, 12 may 2009 10:38:46 +1000
from: sherlyn koo <sherlyn@pixelopolis.com>
subject: [ig-news] seattle weekly concert review

hi folks,

here's a nice review from the seattle weekly - you can read it online at
http://blogs.seattleweekly.com/reverb/2009/05/suburban_saturday_night_indigo.php.

cheers,
sherlyn

- ---begin forwarded article---
suburban saturday night: indigo girls at the edmonds center for the arts
by mike seely in concert reviews
monday, may. 11 2009 @ 10:32am

i once played acoustic guitar rather competently. it would not be long
before i was surpassed (and then some) by my more musically-gifted baby
brothers, but this six-string upbringing made my teenage affinity for the
indigo girls a more natural fit than you might assume.

i've seen at least a dozen indigo girls gigs in my time. at each of these
performances, i was one of about a dozen straight males in the audience.
while in st. louis, i had the great pleasure of interviewing emily sailers,
the more matronly and introspective of the pair, who came up in the same
athens, georgia scene that spawned rem. sailers has long been, far and
away, my favorite of the girls, her voice a natural instrument, and her
stage demeanor far more easygoing than the intensely militant amy ray.

but on saturday night at the edmonds center for the arts, ray proved what
good can come from the power of persistence, and also clued the audience in
as to why the girls, who will play the woodland park zoo on july 26
(already sold out), have been playing the seattle area so frequently of
late.

to the latter, ray's girlfriend lives in seattle. in fairness, the girls
have always had an affinity for the pacific northwest, but add love and
animal urges to the equation, and they find themselves back this way every
third or fourth month. from the stage, ray even went so far as to namecheck
claire's, the downtown edmonds diner up the road that was once part of
claire's pantry's north-end empire.

ray's vocal work has rang a little too gruff over the years, especially
compared with sailers'. but on a postcard-perfect saturday night -- the
performance hall sits on a hill overlooking puget sound -- ray exhibited an
enhanced sense of tonal dexterity, and the result was a flawless
performance by two veteran collaborators (accompanied only by a keyboardist
in faux-hawk and tie) who can all but read each others' musical minds.
while the set list tilted heavily toward new material, there were enough
oldies ("closer to fine," "power of two," "galileo") sprinkled in to keep
the enthusiastic crowd from growing restless.

so, yeah, the edmonds center for the arts? weird venue for a popular music
act to play, right? only on the surface. executive director joe mcialwain
(full disclosure: we attended high school together, and joe and his brother
ken are longtime friends of mine) showed the same penchant for booking
unexpected acts when he held a similar position at kirkland's equivalent
venue, booking cowboy junkies (also playing the zoo this summer, six days
before the indigo girls) to play an even more intimate space (the edmonds
facility has a balcony and maybe double the capacity of the kirkland
space). upon moving north, he swiftly booked colin hay, the dusty 45s, and
ladysmith black mambazzo, among others, to grace his stage. it's dynamic
programming like this that keep the cobwebs from creeping into community
theater.

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end of ig-news-digest v11 #34
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