The past month has been insane. I've been going, doing, and seeing nonstop, and it has made
me one very delinquent blogger.
Actually, it's made me an anxious blogger too. Last time this happened (about a year-and-a-half ago), I
just stopped writing because I was so overwhelmed. I didn't know how I was possibly going to share everything
I'd been doing so I didn't share anything. This time, I promise to keep writing and fill you all in as
best I can. I've decided that in
order to make this process more manageable I'm going to split the last month
into several blogs and just let it fall into a natural progression. But that begs the question: Where
to begin?
I'll start back in early November. As you all know, Thanksgiving is a very American holiday; it's
just as much about being thankful and surrounding yourself with family and
friends as it is about kicking off the Christmas season festivities. As the British don't celebrate
Thanksgiving they don't seem to have the same Christmas timeline we have in America. As such, I found myself at Harrods’s
Christmas parade on the 3rd of November.
I'm not going to lie and say that I don't enjoy the Brit's love for all
things Christmas; all the decorations make the usually grey, dreary city
somehow more bright and cheery.
You almost, I stress almost, forget you're freezing to death and in a
constant state of damp.
 |
| First Christmas Tree of the Holiday Season |
 |
| Night View of Harrods Decorated for Christmas |
Now, back to the Harrods Christmas parade. While I was expecting something more
along the lines of Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade, I wasn't at all disappointed
by what I got. In true parade
form, there was a marching band, elaborately dressed dancers, and a host of
smiling, waving people dressed for Christmas. Santa made his way through the parade atop a Harrods double
decker bus, how very British! There
were also horse drawn carriages, Disney princesses dressed in couture, and
reindeer. I almost died when the
reindeer made their way through the procession; talk about an overload of cute!
 |
| Marching Band |
 |
| Horse Drawn Carriage |
 |
| Reindeer |
As the month progressed I was lucky enough to see several big
shows, namely The Civil Wars, Ingrid Michaelson, and The Lumineers. I had been looking forward to The Civil
Wars show since late spring, early summer. Their album, Barton Hollow, is one of my absolute favorites,
and I keep it on heavy rotation; I listened to it a lot last year while I was
studying my way through graduate school and the CPA exam. The duo, which consists of Joy Williams
and John Paul White, offers listeners a folksy, southern sound with mesmerizing
harmonies; I think "haunting" is the perfect word to articulate their
unique sound. If you haven't given
them a listen I would highly recommend that you do! Hearing them live gave me goose bumps, and I was beside
myself when they played my favorite song, "Dance Me to the End of
Love," as their encore! About
an hour after I got home from the show, as I was getting my Internet fix before
bed, I got an email saying The Civil Wars were cancelling the rest of their
European tour, citing internal discord and irreconcilable differences of
ambition as the cause. They claim
to be releasing new music in 2013, and while I will be keeping my fingers
crossed that they can work things out and bring us new music, right now I am
just thankful that I got to see them live when I did!
 |
| The Civil Wars at the Roundhouse 6 November 2012 |
Several days later I went to see Ingrid Michaelson. When Ann started talking about the show
I wasn't at all convinced that I wanted to go; unlike most celebrities and
musical acts, I couldn't exactly pinpoint Ingrid Michaelson. She wasn't at all on my radar, but I
began listening to some of her music at work and realized I was more familiar
with her than I had known. She has
several popular songs that I recognized, including: "You and I,"
"Parachute," "The Way I Am," and "Be OK." Ultimately, I decided to go to the
show, and I was not disappointed.
The venue, Union chapel, is an old church that is still very much an
active place of worship, but which also houses shows throughout the year. Union Chapel's acoustics perfectly
showcased Michaelson's voice and made for an incredible concert experience; I
can't wait to go to more shows there in the future! I also can't wait to hear more from Ingrid Michaelson!
 |
| Ingrid Michaelson at Union Chapel 8 November 2012 |
Next up was The Lumineers. I've been listening to this group a lot at work the past few
months; their debut, self-titled album is the definition of catchy. The group falls into the indie
folk-rock category; think The Civil Wars, Old Crow Medicine Show, etc. They seemed to be having so much fun
onstage, which could be a product of their new found success; they still seem
genuinely surprised that their shows are getting sold out, and they don't seem
like they've let success go to their heads yet. I loved that midway through the show they asked everyone to
put their cameras and smart phones down and just be present and enjoy the music
in the moment. They played all of
their own songs and did several covers.
"Ho Hey," which is one of my favorite songs on the album, is
so much fun to hear live; lots of stomping, "Hoing," and "Heying!" They're coming back to London in a few
months, but unfortunately their dates are scheduled in the heart of busy season
so it's unlikely I'll get to go.
 |
| The Lumineers at KoKo 12 November 2012 |
 |
| Wesley Schultz of The Lumineers |
Caitlin
No comments:
Post a Comment