Posts Tagged “imogen heap”

Apr 28 2007

Imogen Heap, 12-03-2006, The Warfield (San Francisco, CA)

Posted by: dave in concert, tags: imogen heap, The Warfield

I’ll start off by saying, this was probably my favorite show of 2006. Imogen Heap put out my absolute favorite album of 2005, and my undying appreciation for Speak For Yourself holds true today. I saw her to start off the concert year of 2006 in January at the Great American Music Hall and it was a great way to start the year’s worth of shows. What better way to end the year, than to see her again? (okay, it wasn’t the last show I saw in 2006, but it was close and still the best!).

Unfortunately, Imogen was somewhat sick this show and I’m not talking in some hipster ironic lingo where sick means awesome. She was suffering from some sort of cold/flu, and had to take frequent breaks to go off and clean out and have some tea and all that stuff. The fact that she even went through with everything and put on a stellar show is nothing short of amazing to me. I was expecting a quick “hey, lets get done so I can get to bed early tonight” sort of show, but there was no such disappointment in San Francisco this evening! The previous show I saw was mostly Imogen and her array of keyboards and devices that she uses to re-create the lush sounds on her albums, with Zoe Keating along to provide a little extra oomph in a few songs. This show we were treated to an actual band joining in on a few of the songs, with Kid Beyond backing things up with beatboxing. I’ll be honest, I wasn’t expecting much out of Kid Beyond, I thought he was a gimmick, cutesty “oh wow beatboxing that was lame 10 years ago” thing, but I went away fully converted. Regardless, the songs with the full band were amazing. The songs without the full band were amazing. Everything was just amazing. Honestly.
Almost all of the songs are at least slightly different than their album arrangements. Some are nearly an entirely new song. I think that’s one of the main things that makes a show like this so special. When most artists just do a faithful rendition of the songs on their latest album, pepper the set with an older song here and there and then move on to the next city and do the exact same thing, it’s a breath of fresh air to hear a fully “organic” show such as this one. An ironic idea for an artist that primarily uses a bunch of computers and electronics to create music, isn’t it?

Anyway, best show of 2006 for me. Enjoy.

setlist: