ICE CREAM HEADACHE

INGRID MICHAELSON * 06.04.08
Headliner's Music Hall * Louisville, KY


Headliner's Music Hall holds roughly 600 and was at near capacity by the time Gwen Stefani's "Hollerback Girl" (the unedited version, I might add - I always forget HOW many profanities are originally in that song...) stopped blaring from the sound system and Ingrid Michaelson, along with her band for the evening - Allie Moss and Chris Kuffner - took the stage.

The evening's instrumentation consisted of Moss on acoustic guitar, Kuffner on bass guitar (and occasionally on makeshift percussion), and Michaelson rotating between keyboard and ukelele.

The set started slow. Michaelson sat at the keys and started into "Breakable." Sound troubles plagued both Michaelson and her opener, Greg Laswell, maiming Michaelson's vocals through the first verse of the piano ballad. The crowd sang along with her through most of the track, causing her to smile and suddenly seem at ease.

Michaelson has always struck me on record as thoughtful, intelligent and probably reserved - but on stage, reserved she is not. Just minutes after finishing the tender "Breakable," Michaelson was joking about her "lucky butt crack," actually allowing an audience member to try to throw a dime in her pants.

It was this type of banter that characterized the onstage Michaelson. Throughout the night Michaelson rapped a particular '80s commercial jingle, quoted "The Office," and cursed often - something she would then scold herself for since Headliner's was serving as an all-ages venue for the night. At one point Michaelson even surveyed the crowd to find the youngest audience member. While most of the crowd would have fit in the 18-30 range, Michaelson's prodding uncovered a few 13-year-old girls, and a 6-year-old, who had come to the show with her mother. Michaelson played "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" for the girl as her encore.

Due to Michaelson's "cult" status of sort, her first priority was not on playing "hits." This made for a set full of material not on her breakthrough disc, "Girls and Boys." Of a 13-song set, less than half came from her main recorded work. The rest consisted of several songs she alluded to as being recently written, one she referred to as being especially old, and a couple of cover songs. One of these was "Creep" by Radiohead, a set addition made abruptly by Michaelson to distract from sound troubles being experienced by Moss. When she finished, she mentioned that she'd been working on her version of the song and didn't consider herself quite finished.

SET LIST

Breakable
Overboard
The Chain
Die Alone
Creep (Radiohead Cover)
Giving Up
Lonesome Road I Have Chosen (not actual title)
Be Okay
Far Away
The Hat
The Way I Am
Keep Breathing
Oh What A Day
**************
Somewhere Over the Rainbow