The line stretched out for nearly three blocks outside the door of Park West Theater Sunday night in Lincoln Park. And for good reason, as the talents comprising of the Hotel Café Tour put on one of the best shows so far this year. The Hotel Café Tour, created by Cary Brothers in 2004, creates the same feeling felt at the small Hotel Café venue in L.A. One of independent singer-songwriters performing acoustic heavy songs, while joining and supporting each other onstage.
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The Hotel Cafe Tour
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 Entertainment
Art
Park West
Chicago, Ill.
March 30, 2008
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Performers Meiko, Ingrid Michaelson, Dan Wilson, Joshua Radin and Cary Brothers performed an intimate, humorous and touching show. Thrown in with the performers’ various stories of heartbreak, dreams, the tribulations of missing the tour bus, grabbing your freedom, Hurricane Katrina and sex with a female hotdog….(yes, you read that correctly) the show felt like sitting in your favorite coffee shop with good friends. Throw in Johnny Flower on bass, Brad Gordon on drums and Jason Kanakis on guitar and you have an incredible show.
Each artist played three songs through the first round of performances, and three or more through the second round. The performers joined each other onstage sporadically throughout the night, showing a genuine feeling of friendship and appreciation for each other.
Meiko open things up with How Lucky We Are, Reasons to Love You and Under My Bed. Standing up there on stage in a pretty white dress with the guitar slung over her shoulders, her simple, soulful delivery prepared the audience for second act Cary Brothers. She came back in her second performance with Hawaii and the funny You and Onions make me Cry,.
Cary Brothers’ took the audience through songs like Ride and Who You Are. He cited influences such as The Cure and other British New Wave music while on stage, before playing The Last One. Brother’s vocals were slightly overshadowed during his first song, but he picked it up afterwards. For those waiting to hear Blue Eyes, made famous off the Garden State soundtrack, they would have to wait until his next set nearly an hour later.
Ingrid Michealson received a large pop from the audience as she took the stage and opened up with Breakable off 2007’s Girls and Boys album.. She followed up with Far Away; a song she missed playing at Friday‘s show. She finished up with The Hat, a song dealing with a first love.
Dan Wilson of Semisonic fame took the stage next, performing Easy Silence off of his recent album Free Life, followed by Breathless and Free Life.
Special guest Joshua Radin thrilled the audience with Today, Don’t Look Away and a lovely performance of The Fear You Won’t. A song dealing with falling in love, but being a victim of timing.
The last hour produced the most memorable and best performances of the evening.
Cary Brothers and Ingrid Michealson played together before being joined by Meiko and Dan Wilson during Blue Eyes.
Wilson stayed on board, encouraging the audience to sing along to All Kinds. It created a true feeling of intimacy, just Wilson, his guitar on stage and the audience singing the chorus.
Michaelson remained on stage and joked with the audience. “I feel like people just want to hear that one song they know…And I (singing)….I’ll get to that shit in a minute,” she said, talking of the hit The Way I Am. Sara Bareilles joined Ingrid Michaelson on The Chain, a hauntingly beautiful song about the possibility of a love coming back. Michaelson and Bareilles’s overlapping lyrics sent chills down the spine. Michaelson then performed a stirring cover of Radiohead’s Creep.
Joshua Radin came back onstage and performed a longer set through songs like Winter, Closer and Star Mile. He saved his best performance of the night with Everything Will Be Alright (Will’s Lullaby)-a song written during Hurricane Katrina.
Finally Joshua and Michealson closed the show with a cover of Tonight You Belong To Me, from the Steve Martin film, The Jerk.
After the show a large crowd gathered by the doors, where Meiko and others happily signed autographs and chatted with the fans. Afterwards the crowd stepped out into the rain, smiling and continuing to sings the songs, looking forward to next year’s show.
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