An Ocean and a Rock
Remember that blog post from awhile ago where I said I was embarrassed that I hesitated to buy tickets to Lisa Hannigan’s show in Chicago?
Yeah, no. Strike that. Post-Concert, I can now upgrade (downgrade?) my status to officially mortified.
The trip getting into the city was easy enough, Nick and I learned our way around the “L Trains” pretty quickly, including a hands-on crash course on what you do and don’t do. And by “hands-on” I mean “we were the only people who seemed to stumble when the train departed since there were no places to stand” and “I sucked it up and sat next to a stranger after the first two minutes and was not assaulted in any way.”
We spent the afternoon cruising around on the subway and wandering around the city, out to Navy Pier and up the “Magnificent Mile” while we talked about Lisa and Damien and enjoyed the day off in general. We had a late lunch at our favorite pizza place1 and ended up at the absolute fanciest malls I have ever seen ever.
Somehow over the course of all this, I ended up – as I often do on Very Important Days – with a terrible migraine. I had done all the usual steps to prevent it but apparently the pull of the universe was just a bit much and by the time we lined up at Double Door I could barely see straight. Thanks to our fear of getting off at the wrong station / getting lost / me wanting to get the train ride over with, we ended up at the venue near 30 minutes before they opened the doors, with one lonely dude waiting in line at the front. He actually asked us if we had heard John Smith (the opener) before, and I said yes2 and the way he was asking if he was any good, I swear I thought that was John himself trying to mess with us. As it turns out, it wasn’t, thank God.
Once we got in we sort-of beeline’d for the front, and boy oh boy did we get a good spot. I somehow have the extremely good luck of being at the Very Front for every concert I have ever attended3, and this was no exception – actually, this was probably the closest I’ve been to any musician ever. Not bad for someone who shares the number one spot on my must-see list.
John Smith, the opener came out about fifteen minutes after the show was scheduled to begin, at which point I was immediately able to forget my headache as he launched into an a capella song that rapidly became an amazing guitar song “about death,” in his words. Nick and I were completely enamored and ready to buy CDs (which he was sold out of!) – his music fell somewhere between Ben Harper, Trace Bundy, the O Brother, Where Art Thou soundtrack and Mr. Damien Rice himself – all in all it was amazing. He made a few jokes about us not knowing who he was (been there myself – nobody wants to be the opening act) and even one about him “being a big deal in England” (followed rapidly by shaking his head and mouthing the words “no I’m not”) and frankly, we would have gone to see him play solo. This guy is definitely on my radar now – we haven’t gotten our CDs yet, but we plan to! Watch out for this one, internet.
After a short spell (mostly filled with me trying to keep my head up, strangely as long as there was someone standing on stage making music I felt fine) Lisa and her band came out. Without a word, they immediately launched into Paper House, by far one of my favorite songs on her new album – at least, before we saw her play live. Now I’m honestly not sure which one is my favorite. I managed to capture most of the song on video – to be honest I was not entirely expecting her to play it first and was a little surprised to have to get my camera back out so soon!
Pistachio came next, and let me just say that I was completely enamored with this song live. It’s one that I always listened to on-and-off from Sea Sew but occasionally skipped, but suddenly I found myself falling in love with it. I also fell in love with this crazy table organ thing she was playing which was one of – I can’t even count how many instruments she pulled out. The woman is amazingly talented and each song she brings out an assortment of new toys, looking absolutely tickled to death about each one. But right, the table organ thing (someone correct me on what this thing is seriously:)
Next up was A Sail, a song that I had been a little hesitant about on the actual recording, but it turned out to be phenomenal live. Nick and I both shot each other a look during this one – though we’d heard it before, we hadn’t really heard the lyrics. “It’s long gone, that carry on from December / it is no matter / if you remember.” Maybe nothing, but as people who like to read into things a lot – well gosh, the whole song reminded us an awfully lot of Damien’s “I Remember” (which he sang with Lisa) in the lyrical department. Almost like a call and answer of sorts.
Ocean and a Rock and Venn Diagram were every bit as beautiful as I’d expected, though both dwarfed a little bit by the beauty of the songs off of Passenger. I loved these songs on her first album and both were great – especially live – but it’s hard to put them up next to the newer ones. While there are some musicians where I’ll admittedly be a snot and go “Well this isn’t as good as their earlier work” – Lisa Hannigan is only improving the more and more she plays.
This next one took me a little bit to track down on YouTube (here’s a recording, though not from the Chicago show) – this was easily one of my favorite songs. Called, at least by this video and her set list, Flowers. She actually started up with a bit of crowd banter at this point and told us about how they were having “classic movie night” and that her choice had been Point Break. She called this song – and her playing of the electric guitar – the musical equivalent of shooting a gun in the air and yelling “Hyeahhh!” – this song. This song. It’s not on either album and I genuinely have no idea where to find it other than YouTube but it just blew me away. I expect to hear this on the soundtrack of some modern western or something in due time.
Little Bird came next, another song that I liked and caught a recording of, along with some more crowd banter, followed by O Sleep, a song that she originally did with Ray LaMontagne on the album. This was another song that captivated me in the recording that didn’t disappoint live – especially as a duet with the phenomenal John Smith.
As the songs rolled out and she chatted with the audience, this one was dedicated to such-and-such and that one to someone else, so imagine all of our surprise as we’re standing there and hear her say in her sweet, quiet voice: “This one is for Stephen Colbert.” As soon as she started playing we all cheered and knew it, I Don’t Know, a song she’d performed on his show previously. This is one of my favorite Lisa tunes; prior to the show I would have told you it was my absolute favorite but now I’m honestly not sure! It was great live and so much fun to see Lisa dancing around.
Passenger followed to great excitement of the audience; if you’ve heard the song by now you know about the opening line – she even introduced by saying “And this song is written about you!” It begins – “Walking ’round Chicago / I have smuggled you as cargo / though you are far away, unknowing.” The crowd response was so great and cheerful she had to stop and restart the whole song again! Each time a midwestern city/area was mentioned it got a huge applause and cheer.
Once the song was over and she was getting ready, a guy yelled out “What’ll I Do!” to Lisa’s surprise – she could tell (and so could we) that he was being cheeky after peeking at the setlist, but nonetheless she pronounced “This is for that guy!” and got on with the song.
A few things to be said about “What’ll I Do” – I absolutely did not like this song before I heard it live. While the others that I changed my mind about I had sort-of liked, this one I did not like at all. I wasn’t sure about it. It sounded odd, or different, but live - live you can really see how much this woman loves performing and absolutely must do it with every fiber of her being. It’s so full of energy and life and for a song that could have been so depressing, it just fills the entire room with happiness. You couldn’t help but clap along, stomp along, dance if you wanted to. It was just so classically Lisa.
Safe Travels, Don’t Die was the next choice, to my surprise – I thought for sure that song would be last, but nope! The song is hilarious as she warns you against various dangers (she introduced it as “some tips for life”) such as sitting too close to screens, bungee jumping, and playing with gasoline pumps (another Point Break reference was here, too.)
Finally, Lille. A song I’d been dying to hear live since I first heard it, and a famous one in the Big Book of Lisa Hannigan and Damien Rice’s Big Quasi-Romantic Musical Tale. The first song she wrote when they split up, purposely the last song at her concerts and the last song on the album. It was extraordinary seeing her play this – in two ways, one that it was downright beautiful and heartfelt, but on the other because I had read an interview with her once where she said she liked that song because it always made her smile, and that “even if I’m not smiling when I start, I’m smiling by the end” because the song is just so hopeful. Instead we got a passionate, emotional Lisa who looked on the brink of tears for the majority of the song. There was a certain sadness to it that despite my familiarity with the song, I hadn’t been expecting. It was magical and beautiful and a completely amazing moment.
She and the band left and came back quickly for an encore as expected; they opened it up with Home, a song from the new album that I hadn’t listened to much prior to coming, and then of course Knots, the loud, stomp-your-feet track she released as a single not too long ago. Talk about a song that just captures you – when she plays this song live it’s like an entire carnival crammed into three minutes. The different sounds and instruments, the energy from the entire band, it was just great.
As a closer, much to Nick’s delight, a rather creative version of Depeche Mode’s Personal Jesus (or as my setlist says, “Personal Jebus.”) She played it with some sort of creative drumming-on-a-dulcimer-with-a-string-bow technique and the entire band was just on fire. In Nick’s words “it wasn’t the best version of the song, but man they were having fun up there.” They were! It was like a party and a metal show all at once!
After the show I managed to nab the last setlist from the stage thanks to a helpful bloke who worked for the venue while Nick was in line to get a CD. While I was returning to the line, though – there she was! Ms. Lisa Hannigan herself sitting at the merch desk, chatting away with everyone – and Nick only a few folks away from the front. They were out of CDs but we purchased a beautiful poster and had her sign it for us and had a nice little chat that I wish could have gone on forever.
Lisa was so incredibly nice, sweet, friendly, beautiful, amazing – I cannot possibly give enough adjectives to fully explain how rewarding the experience was. I especially loved getting to chat with her – however short it was, and even though Nick and I kept coming up with a billion things afterwards we wish we could have said! Here was a woman that I had been following and inspired by since I was in high school – right in front of me! Chatting away! It was wonderful.
Thank you, thank you, thank you. To Lisa, to John Smith, to the entire band, to Double Door – this was the most magical, completely captivating performance I have ever attended. I hope to see you again soon. :)
1. It should be noted that I, Manda Collis, noted Pizza Aficionado, have dubbed Chicago Style Pizza superior to New York Style Pizza.
2. I only knew of him because I googled him before the show to see if we’d like his music. AGAIN, GUILTY.
3. There have been a few exceptions such as stadium shows and shows with fixed seating, but I’ve definitely been within arm’s reach of Regina Spektor, Michelle Branch, and Dashboard Confessional. Good enough.
Lou Malnati’s is better!!!!