Live music review: Carrie Akre and Johnette Napolitano

A while ago, Nick posted on "Billy Ocean, Student Council Treasurer" a post about women-fronted bands. I went to make a comment about my favorite little-known female singer, Carrie Akre, and went to her website to link in the post. While perusing the site, I found out about a show she was doing, opening for Johnette Napolitano at The Triple Door. I immediately bought tickets. I wouldn't have known about the show if it wasn't for Nick, indirectly. Thanks again Nick!

First, about the The Triple Door. This is a swank dinner-and-a-show kinda place. Not too big...smaller than the Showbox, I think, but still good sized. The nice design and the way the tables are laid out all cozy-like make it a very intimate atmosphere for a show even if you're way up in the back. They don't reserve or sell certain seats, they just open the doors a certain time before the show and seat as people come in. One complaint I do have is that if you're a couple, you will probably get stuck on one of the little two-tops along the side, which are nice because they're close to the stage but suck because they're cramped. Seriously, these tables are barely big enough for one person to eat dinner on, much less two. If you're going to a show at the Triple Door, I suggest getting a foursome together and showing up early.

The food is actually from the Wild Ginger restaurant upstairs. Most of their food is Thai, which I hate, but there was enough on the menu for me to get something I liked. We had some unbelievably yummy potstickers, and delicious lamb satay. Dinner was chicken pad thai for Jen (she liked it) and seven-flavor beef for me (good, nothing to write home about). For dessert, they actually had a creme brulee that Jen liked. It was fantastic, in fact. (Jen has a bizarrely high bar for creme brulee - it must be perfect or she hates it)

Just about the time we were finishing up dinner and preparing to order dessert, Carrie Akre took the stage. Jen had in fact gone out for a smoke and came back in just as Carrie sat down with her guitar. There were obviously a number of fans of hers there, and she got a warm reception. She proceeded to play the first few songs herself, just her and the guitar. Two of them were songs I wasn't familiar with, but they were good anyway. Who am I kidding, that woman could sing me the phonebook and I'd be in heaven. Anyway, after the first three songs, she was joined by her friend Jared somebody (can't remember, sorry Jared) and did one of his songs that Carrie dueted with him on his CD. It was a good song, if I can remember who the hell he is I'll have to check out his CD. They proceeded to do a few more of Carrie's songs before the sadly short half hour set was up. I wish she could have played more; she really seemed to be just warming up when it ended. Thus is the nature of being the opener, I guess. It wasn't just me and her other friends who were happy with the set, though. The couple next to us were from Jersey and had never heard of her, and they were blown away.

On a side note, she broke my heart introducing one of her songs. She said she wrote it for the man who "hopefully soon" would be her husband. Jen turned to me with a sarcastic frown and said, "Sorry." Then she laughed at me.

After a brief intermission, Johnette came out and the crowd went wild. Her fans are not huge in number, I think, but they could be described as "rabid". She proceeded to do some of her own solo songs, but mostly acoustic renditions of Concrete Blonde songs. Naturally, the Concrete Blonde songs got the most reaction. About a quarter of the way through the show, though, she did Leonard Cohen's "Everybody Knows", which Concrete Blonde covered for the soundtrack of "Pump Up the Volume". She hit it out of the ballpark. It was amazing, leaving in the dust the Concrete Blonde recording and Cohen's own performance. I thought, "Damn, she should have saved that one for later," but there it was.

Sitting in front of us were half a dozen gay guys. I mean, over-the-top, justifying every stereotype gay guys. They were quite amusing. Between sets, they were asking the waitress to tell some guy to come over to their table, then one of them said, "You know what, just tell them ALL to come over here." Anyway, when Johnette launched into "Take me home" these guys starting hopping up and down in their seats and squeeling. I mean, seriously, squeeling, like giddy little girls. Jen and I cracked up and had to lean against each other we were laughing so hard.

Anyhow, Johnette worked through a number of songs. "Mexican Moon" stands out for me, because her acoustic version was more beautiful (that's right, I said beautiful) than the Concrete Blonde version. Eventually, she got to "Joey".

I hate that song. It is probably the only Concrete Blonde song I don't like. When the video for that came out, it was the first time I had ever heard of them, and I assumed based on that one song (because it was the only one of theirs you ever heard) that I would not like Concrete Blonde. It wasn't until years later when a friend played "Bloodletting" for me that I realized I really would like them. So when she started singing "Joey" I got up and went to the bathroom. When I came back, the song was ending and Johnette was saying goodnight.

I got back the table and told Jen, "God, she better not end it on that fucking song." Jen assured me there would be an encore, and there was, thankfully. One song.

Johnette came back out and did an a capella rendition of "Tomorrow Wendy". It was awesome, and tied for me with "Everybody Knows" for her best song of the night. A great ending for a great, but too short, performance.