Imogen Heap @ TLA

[orangerful]

I meant to blog about this last week but time got away from me! On Tuesday, I drove up to Philadelphia with my brother so we could see Imogen Heap LIVE! We met up with dstntp1lgr1m and _____saveferris when we got there.

We arrived very early and managed to get near to the front of the stage (as you can see from the pics if you click the image above). Imogen came out and introduced the two opening acts (who, we discovered later, were the guys that made up her "band" for the night). The first guy was pretty good, doing a bit of looping and making noises etc.. Got the crowd going. The next guy was insane - he mixed anything and everything. First he made us cheer, recorded it, then mixed it up to a beat. Then he had the people in the front row eat some potato chips and recorded their crunches, mixed it, and created a little melody out of it. He sang a couple of his own songs, looping and mixing things the whole time (he had a joystick mapped out to different effects depending on which way he twisted it). For the finale, he had us pass the microphone around the room and make random sounds into it, which he mixed and played back right then. It was crazy. I doubt I could listen to any of it on my own, but as an opening act, he really got you ready to go!

Then Imogen came out! She's gorgeous and funny. She had this great nervous mumble that she did, coming on stage and talking very fast, wandering around and fiddling with whatever was on hand. Eventually it felt less like a stage and more like you were in Imogen's house and you'd just happened to crash a musical party going on in her living room. There was a giant white tree in the middle of the stage, which had percussion instruments dangling from it, lights decorating it, and during some songs, things were projected onto it.

Memorable moments:
- Imogen explaining her wrist microphones to us - they were literally attached to her wrists so she could play a variety of instruments that were not electronic but still have them miked. Brilliant idea! Plus she was so excited to tell us about them haha.
- Imogen's computer crashing (it was a Mac too!) and she had to kill time by playing this really neat instrument...er...I've forgotten the name of it, but it was very cool.
- Imogen killing time again while they had some electronic difficulties and bringing out her pet rooster onto the stage
- Imogen rocking the Key-tar during the "last song"
- Imogen teaching the audience to sing harmonies during "Just For Now" during the encore (and the audience pulling it off!!!!)
- Imogen saying she'll be back in April!!!!!!!!!

We're going to try hard to get tickets to the DC/B'more area show next time. Philly is fun but the drive is long when you have to work the next morning (well, there was construction so that slowed everything down even more). Plus, I want AD to see her.

So, to sum up - if Imogen Heap is playing anywhere near you, GO SEE HER! She's a lot of fun live and she doesn't just play the album straight through but she doesn't jam so long you get bored. She's got this great balance and sense of humor. She tosses a little storytelling in there too. I was very impressed by her stage presence.

Comments

[http://users.livejournal.com/_ithilienranger/]

Sounds fun! Glad you had fun! xx

[sideflip1.livejournal.com]

i <3 the TLA. one of the better places to see shows, imo. i know it's a drive for you though. 9:30 club isn't bad though. and have you been to Rams Head Live in Baltimore yet? i hear that venue isn't too bad.

[orangerful.livejournal.com]

I really liked TLA. I haven't been to 9:30 Club in ages, but it was a good venue too, except for the whole being in DC thing haha. Parking is always such a pain in cities. I saw Weird Al at Rams Head Live, it was a nice venue in pretty nice area, though we didn't get to hang around as much as I would like.