A shot of Brandi @ the Fair
Posted on August 26th, 2008 – 11:17 PMBy Jon Bream
Brandi Carlile played 28 minutes past closing time on Tuesday night at the Leinie Lodge Bandshell and no one complained. Now, if this had been the grandstand, fair officials would have launched the fireworks instead of letting her play her 40-minute encore, which is what happened Sunday at the grandstand when Jonny Lang got too long winded. But I digress.
Brandi, who played two nights at the bandshell, is hugely popular here; the crowd overflowed into the street. Friendly and folksy, she kept gushing about how much she loved the fair (she applauded) and wants to be invited back next year. (Can you say the grandstand?)
It was a generous, crowd-pleasing two hours with lots of highlights including “The Story,” her versions of old country songs and, of course, her reading of Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah.” She has a powerhouse voice but sometimes she just couldn’t transcend her lesser material (”Caroline,” “Love Song,” for example).
Still, I would join the chorus to bring her back to the fair in 2009.
What did you think of the show? Please post your comments here:
One response to "A shot of Brandi @ the Fair"
I was very surprised at how many people (and what an age-diverse group of people, at that) were at Brandi Carlisle’s show last night. It got off to a slow start (late because she got a shock from her equipment, we found out later), but kept everyone really entertained. I have her CD’s, but it was the first time I’ve seen her live, and I wasn’t disappointed.
She does have a couple of songs that weren’t as good as the others (I agree with the review on ‘Love Song’, but not on ‘Caroline’-that was a great song!), but was very impressed with her voice live.
Great show, and I hope she comes back next year!
