Brandi Carlile at the Rio Theater June 23rd

On a whim I decided to head down to Santa Cruz on a Monday night to take in a Brandi Carlile concert at the Rio Theater, which is turning out to be one of my favorite venues. I caught Colin Meloy there a couple months ago and was hoping to find another appealing act so I could make another visit. She turned out to be the one.

I heard her for the first time on sirius radio when I was down in Arizona in a rental car. It was the song Turpentine on their "Coffee House" channel and I made an effort to remember her name so that I could at least grab that song off of i-tunes. I really liked the sound of her voice and accompanying harmony. Despite the fact that she has a little bit of a "country" tag, she also has a lot of folk and rock in her repertoire, enough to hook me in. I decided to give her a shot.

As I came into the theater to the last half of the opening act, a giggly wisp of a girl named Priscilla Ahn, I wondered what I'd be in for. I was somewhat hoping that she had at least a couple band mates. Colin Meloy had held up well on his own, but Laura Veirs, who I saw at another show, would have faired better with some company. With an act named "Brandi Carlile", it was hard to tell what that meant, though I was encouraged by seeing several guitars on stage with a drum set.

Ahn finished out her set, which wasn't too bad despite having to listen to some banter in between songs that could have been shortened a bit. She also had this laugh that could have easily made a Seinfeld episode (Jerry dates a girl that is perfect with the exception of a grating laugh. Wackiness ensues.). What was interesting about her is that she almost seemed to mature 10 years when going from talking to performing, having a fairly rich voice and some respectable musical talent. As far as opening acts go, she did pretty well.

Back to Brandi...Her band surprised the hell out of me. She came out in jeans and a boy scout shirt greeted by a predominantly female audience, which was also very young, especially those standing up in the front. I felt like I was at some sort of feminist sit in. Soon afterwards the rest of her band came out, which included a lead and bass guitar, cellist and a drummer. They launched right into a rock oriented number that played pretty well.

Compared to Brandi and the rest of the band, the two guitarists looked out of place with trilby hats covering their shaved heads and tattoos of snakes and vines wrapped around their arms. I could picture them in a heavy metal or punk band, but not performing something like The Story or Turpentine. But it's best not to judge a book by its cover as I heard the band fluctuating between folksy ballads, bluesy country and what might be called alternative rock. These guys, who I realized later were identical twins, harmonized well with Brandi's vocals. With her acoustic guitar in the middle of their electrics, they made a nice trio. The cellist added some nice strings, especially with the stripped down songs and the drummer seemed more than adequate. Both of these guys seemed around the college age and like Brandi, looked like they could be your next door neighbors, but again, best not to judge a book by its cover.

Brandi herself evoked thoughts of a female Jackie Greene. She's probably not quite the instrumental prodigy that he is, but she held her own on guitar and piano and exhibited a rich and booming voice, surprising for someone so diminutive in stature. She also had a lot of charisma and was willing to take chances on an eclectic mix of music that she had put some nice words to. I was smitten.

The set included a lot of their new songs, which were very pleasing, ones I'll be looking forward to on an album that comes this fall. She did Turpentine and The Story of course, which were fun to hear, but these songs did not end up being a crutch or an exclamation point for the performance. Probably my favorite number was an unplugged version of a new song where she ditched the microphone (asking if people could hear her in the back) and the twins pulled out acoustic guitars. It sounded beautiful. They also did three nice covers: Creep from Radio Head, an Elton John song called "We All Fall in Love Some Times", stripped down to only piano and cello and they finished with Johnny Cash's Folsom Prison Blues. It was a gorgeous set.

I came away feeling very happy that I had made the trip down to the Rio Theater again. I'll definitely be looking forward to more music and shows from Brandi Carlile.