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Brandi Carlile in Concert

By Dawn Sailors In Just Dawn

If you’re not a fan of Brandi Carlile, you really, really should be. She has been a favorite since I was in college and I’m very lucky to have had the opportunity to see her live three times now.

The most recent time was this past Friday and I was just as blown away as ever by her voice, stage presence, and showmanship. Oh and did I mention that her guitarist and bassist are twins? Their names are Phil and Tim Hanseroth and they round her out beautifully! Perfect fit.

She performed a few of my favorite songs and introduced a few new ones. She also performed a few covers including a lovely rendition of Forever Young and a rocked-out Folsom Prison Blues. Awesome.

I love how Brandi can go from a soulful solo to a rock-your-face-off full band number and sound amazing on both ends and everything in between. She is also a remarkable lyricist. In an interview she did once, she said that she tries to say the most by saying the least, and that strategy is so powerful and makes her songs so relatable to so many people.

This fact was evidenced by the wide range of fans at her concert. Speaking of which, man do I have some stories!

The concert was at a bar venue, so seating was pretty limited and my sister, bff Melissa, and I didn’t get there early enough to get seats, so we ended up standing for the whole 4 hours we were there. Luckily, we got a spot on the balcony near the railing, so at least we could look over and see and weren’t surrounded by sweaty bodies down in the main floor pit. Unluckily, our standing spot happened to be in front of a couple of 65-year-old women (I told you, wide variety) who had claimed three chairs against the far back wall and had a vision of the crowd parting like the red sea directly in front of them for the whole show. They didn’t appreciate that we were in their line of sight, despite the fact that people were standing literally everywhere and as I previously mentioned, they had chosen to sit in the back of the room.

The women kept telling us to “be real people”. I’m not sure what that means. We tried to tell them that literally everyone around us was standing, and we (by we I, of course mean Dania- per her outspoken twin status) told them that we didn’t have anywhere else to stand or sit. She also suggested that if they were willing to let us sit in their extra chair, the three of us could share it and wouldn’t have to stand. They declined and told us to sit on the floor instead. This was impossible given the standing room only space issue. Not to mention that none of us were too keen to sit on the floor of a bar. Sigh. Some people are sadly just in a perpetually bad mood. Dania refused to let it ruin our night though, and I followed her lead.

Then the show started and the people sitting at the table next to me (two couples in their late 40s I’d guess) started arguing with one of the women at the table who was very very intoxicated. So much so, that she was refusing to test her blood sugar or take her diabetic sugar pills, much to the dismay of her husband and friend. They spent the next hour arguing and trying to physically force pills down her throat, while I tried to keep my toes from getting crushed by the scuffle.

Weird night.

Despite all this going on around us, Brandi and the twins dragged us back into their magic. It was just as good as ever. I even snuck down to the merch table and snagged myself this baby:

That’s right! A vinyl recording that will be just perfect for my new record player!! It was meant to be.

Hope you’re weekend was as awesome as all that!

^