Live Review

Ingrid Michaelson – Shepherds Bush Empire

• 28th May 2010

Ingrid Michaelson
Seeing Ingrid Michaelson live is a little surprising. If you have never seen her in the flesh before, you expect the reflection of herself which comes across in her music – which is a sweet, somewhat innocent girl who has had her heart broken, and fallen in love again. When she walked out on stage, a quirky redhead with big glasses and a strong New York accent, it is a bit of shock to see such a brash, at times crude, New Yorker come out with the beautiful, husky songs she does. But it all adds to the package.

She impressed the audience from the get-go with her first song Soldier. In line with the current trend of “mash ups” (thankyou TV show Glee) riffs from Poker Face by Lady Gaga drift into the melody, and it works rather well. A good beginning to a great show.

In a fairly short set, Ingrid shows off her talents of somewhat of a stand up comedian in between numbers. With her nasally, almost cartoony, New York twang she manages to make fun of herself, as an American, and the audience, as Brits, without offending anyone and just providing a giggle. She also is big on audience interaction, incorporating the audience to sing along and participate some of her songs, such as Die Alone, the Hat and Mountain and the Sea.

After hearing some of her favourites from across all the albums, Ingrid pleased the crowd with a couple of special covers. Also on current trend, she sang a cover of Radiohead’s “Creep”, stripping it right back and weaving her special slow acoustic sound around the song. This was followed later by a bit of trivia, revealing that she was, in fact, the writer of one of Cheryl Cole’s biggest hits here in the UK currently, Parachute. Her version of this was, dare I say it, better, or perhaps simply as she was the writer you could see what she was trying to achieve with the song, her own interpretation.

All too soon it was time for the encore, where she kicked off her shoes and took an audience request of Far Away. She then ended with an experiment in vocal agility, getting rid of the band. She, along with the looping machine, performed a version of REM’s Nightswimming, layering over herself until building up to a climax, and finally the end of the song, and the show. For her diehard fans, she did not disappoint, and I’m sure she won over the hearts of some of “unsures” in the crowd. My only gripe was that the show was not long enough – a tactic perhaps? I’m definitely left wanting more, which I guess is not necessarily a bad thing.