In between songs, Ingrid Michaelson didn’t hesitate to share her delightfully blunt stream of consciousness with the crowd at the El Rey on Thursday night.
“My girlfriends always tell me I shouldn’t talk about bowel movements onstage because it makes me seem less sexy. But I don’t really care.”
Met with an encouraging uproar of laughter, a cool smirk crept onto her face as she fidgeted with her dress. With a frank sense of humor, an infectiously quirky demeanor and a voice with the purity and resonance of a siren, Michaelson had the crowd wrapped around her finger.
Accompanied by two trendy female guitarists, a clean-cut drummer and a bassist whose bald head, glasses and newsboy hat indubitably screamed late-night, East-Coast, jazz-club glamour, Michaelson and her band looked right at home in the intimate atmosphere. Her set consisted of tracks from her debut album, “Girls and Boys,” as well as “Be OK,” including an impassioned version of “Keep Breathing” that brought a number of captivated front-row concertgoers to the brink of tears.
Crooning numbers infused with clever quips such as “I am a lady from Mars and I can unscrew the stars,” and “What’s that look about? Just let the words spill out,” Michaelson shared personal anecdotes in between songs (from confessing to a compulsive need to break out in laughter at certain points mid-song, to relating the plight of a conflicted friend that inspired a song).
Even further demonstrating her uncanny ability to make a connection with the audience, Michaelson induced the crowd to “go all the way” with her by chanting a verse at the top of their lungs, explaining that the song was a metaphor for a first date.
Thursday night’s show was also embellished by the opening acts of David Ford and Newton Faulkner, both U.K. imports yet to be discovered by mainstream American music culture.
Ford’s debut album, “I Sincerely Apologize for All the Trouble I’ve Caused,” offers a spectrum of ironically unapologetic tracks bemoaning the downfalls of society. His El Rey set included the song “State of the Union.”
If one stood amid the audience with closed eyes during Ford’s performance, it would be difficult to imagine that the intricate layering of instruments and the elegantly woven melodies heard were the products of a single man.
Using multiple pedals and recording devices onstage, he began a number of songs by playing a simple rhythm or riff on acoustic guitar. Setting this progression on a repeating loop with a forceful kick to his stage floor gadgetry, he then darted across stage, grabbed a pair of shakers and layered a rhythm loop over the guitar track through the microphone.
Before long, it was as if there was an entire invisible band onstage, with five or more tracks establishing a locked-in melody that served as a vocal playground for frontman Ford. Setting himself up for his final number, he concluded by wailing into the microphone for two minutes over his self-created background symphony with raw, unadulterated emotional intensity.
A tough act to follow, indeed.
Luckily Newton Faulkner was up for the challenge, coming armed with an incredibly broad range of musical talent and lyrical subject matter. Performances of songs off of his album “Hand Built By Robots” exposed Faulkner’s inner dork in all its glory, as the blonde dreadlocked Brit commenced the acoustic guitar pseudo-rap “U.F.O.” by proclaiming, “OK it’s time to get serious. This is a song about aliens.”
Categorizing Newton as an artist is a daunting task. His intricate tap-slap-and-pick guitar technique distinguishes him among contemporary pop guitarists and is characterized by his ability to transform his guitar into a percussive instrument while simultaneously picking out a bassline on the low strings and a lightening riff on the higher ones. He began “I Need Something” by tapping out a syncopated beat on the body of his guitar, holding it parallel to the ground.
His guitar seemed to become an extension of his body ““ simply another limb performing in harmony with the rest.
Ending with an electrifying rendition of “Bohemian Rhapsody” that had the El Rey screaming with delight, Faulkner modestly jogged off stage, leaving the crowd in deafening applause. Most concertgoers would agree, it’s pretty safe to say you’re at the right show when your voice is already hoarse after the opening act.
““ Emily Baraff