#130 - brandi @ the zoo

brandi carlile is one of my favorite singers. she has an amazing voice and a great variety of music. in some songs she rocks out and others are sweet ballads. the band consists of "the twins", tim and phil hanseroth plus a drummer that's changed a couple times and the cellist, josh neuman. i went to my 4th brandi carlile concert the other night at the oregon zoo. it was an amazing show and i was right up at the front with other obsessed fans who knew all the words to her songs. they just wrapped up recording on a new album and so played a lot of new songs. i've been watching vids on youtube so i pretty much knew all the songs in the set, which ran about 90 minutes. it was great!!

it was a pretty amazing place to have a concert and they have concerts every week during the summer at the zoo. it just so happened that the elephant was very soon expecting a baby. so they kept commenting about the elephant and it turns out the baby, a boy, wasn't born till the next morning. i read that it was 286 lbs! i took a bunch of pictures throughout the show but many turned out blurry because it was dark and no flash was allowed (altho people still flashed, idiots). the funniest thing happened while i was shooting, this girl comes up and offers me a beer in exchange for e-mailing her pics! i agreed but didn't really want any beer so she gave me $2. does this make me a professional? :) the thing about brandi and seeing her live is that she puts everything into her shows. she lets it all go as if she's playing for you the first and only time. it really felt like i was the only one there, even though it was a sold out/packed show.

she played songs from her two albums "brandi carlile" and "the story" as well as some new songs on the upcoming album and cover songs. i've heard her cover many songs and she did a couple favorites, "folsom prison blues" (johnny cash) and "fortunate son" (credence clearwater revival). when you think about those songs you wonder how a gal could do it but she pretty much owns it! and as always, she closed the encore with a cover of "hallelujah" which is always amazingly spine-tingling. it is a leonard cohen song which has been done by many people and i think the most popular is the jeff buckley version, but brandi really makes it her own.

here are a couple new songs, hopefully on the new album!

dreams


caroline (oregon zoo show)


that year (heard it at her last show but it's still new)


pride & joy (not new exactly but they kinda changed it)