Ingrid Michaelson at the Wonder Ballroom

Last Tuesday I had the pleasure of seeing the lovely Ingrid Michaelson perform at the Wonder Ballroom in Portland. I had seen Ingrid once before in Spokane, when she opened for Joshua Radin. She was great then, so I had little doubt that I would be impressed by her again. When I saw her in Spokane, she was accompanied only by Allie Moss, who plays guitar and back-up vocals, and it was great to see her in Portland with a full band. It added some variety and a much fuller sound to the show.

Ingrid is definitely worth seeing live, as she is not only a great musician, but a great performer, playfully interacting with the audience and band. In addition to playing her popular songs from Girls & Boys and Be OK, Ingrid covered Radiohead's "Creep" and did a very cute rendition of "Mele Kalikimaka" in honor of the holidays. (Which reminds me, she and Sara Bareilles recorded a Christmas song for the Hotel Cafe's Christmas album called "Winter Song." You can buy it on iTunes--I just did, and it's really beautiful. I know it isn't even Thanksgiving yet, but this isn't the kind of Christmas song you'll get sick of hearing. There is a video of them recording the song on youtube). I was particularly impressed by the show closing song, a yet unreleased song called "Everybody" (at least I think that's what it was called), which will hopefully find it's way onto her next album.

The show was opened by two British men who were both very enjoyable in very different ways--David Ford and Newton Faulkner. David Ford (whose video I'll post below) sounds like a man who has had a lot of bad breakups (or at least one really bad one). His songs are mournful and angry and beautiful, and I like them a lot. He reminds me a bit of David Gray or James Blunt, and I don't think it's just because they're all British. The unique thing about Ford is that he uses a looping technique to record and replay various instruments and vocals. It is pretty amazing to watch him run around the stage as a one-man band. I'm not exactly sure how to explain it well (Andrew Bird does the same thing, if you've ever seen him live), so here's a video that shows exactly what he does:



Cool, huh? Ford ended his set with a beautiful number called, "Song for the Road" about being homesick and missing his wife in England when he's on tour. If anyone can help me out here, I'd really appreciate it--I know I've heard this song before somewhere, but for the life of me, can't figure out where. I've googled it, but I can't seem to find any answers. Maybe it's from a soundtrack? A commercial? I don't know, but here it is:



Oh, and I mentioned Newton Faulkner, who was also really impressive, but since this post is already unbearably long, I'll write more about him later.