Amy Millan Makes Us Swoon

Regarding Friday's Amy Millan show at the Triple Door, we draw a parallel between ourselves and Amy Millan's feet. Amy arrived on stage in a cute little black dress, with open toed black and white shoes. She spent much of the show shifting her weight, with the shoes' "cute" apparently not equating to "comfort." Likewise, we spent much of the show getting used to the Triple Door environment and the fact that we were at a show in something other than our unofficial jeans plus t-shirt uniform. As we expected it was a perfect venue for the show, but we have to admit to being more than a bit out of practice when it comes to playing grownup at such a nice venue.

Were this a Dishin' post, we'd comment at length on our lackluster meal (overcooked scallops, cold rice, decent bok choy), but since this is just about the music, we'll refrain. Greg Laswell opened the show with some sensitive-boy songs, and while we were entertained by him, we spent much of that performance paying attention to his guitarist, who was rocking out far too hard for the music he was playing. It was a bit distracting, but since the room was filled with the sounds of people eating and filing in it was but one of many distractions and didn't take too much away from the Laswell experience.

Many of Amy Millan's early comments regarded how nice the venue was in comparison to others she's played. As in our own case, she was a bit out of her element, but there weren't too many signs of nervousness. Tumbleweed, her backing band, featured lapsteel, trombone, banjo, electric mandolin, and keyboard, perfect for bringing Millan's country-leaning solo works to life. We were especially pleased with the rendition of "Baby I," our favorite song from Honey From the Tombs. We were also pleased with the rendition of Stars' "Look Up," although the mid-song pause because of reservations about the new guitar she was using took us out of the moment. That said, the evening on the whole was filled with wonderful music moments so despite our initial discomfort, we're looking forward to playing grownup again.

You can preview Amy Millan's entire album here.

Image by flickr user busysignals