A few months ago I found out that there are two concerts coming up at the same time on March 7, both from artists that I really like – Lisa Hannigan at the Highline Ballroom and the Bird and the Bee at Carnegie Hall. It was such a tough choice for me because I would love to go to both. Eventually I settled on the Bird and the Bee because of two reasons: 1) I saw a little bit of Lisa Hannigan when she was opening for Jason Mraz last October at the Radio City Music Hall. 2) I have never been inside the fame Carnegie Hall.  Fast-forward to this past Saturday, let me tell you it’s an amazing and comfortable concert. By comfortable, of course I mean we have seats! Good ones even! just a few rows from the stage and right in the middle! Also there wasn’t any waiting in line or have to deal with a large insane crowd or anything. The most civilized concert goers I ever encountered – most likely because the concert was at the prestige Carnegie Hall!

Another funny thing about the crowd was that while me and Scott were waiting on the bench outside Zankel hall (we were early), we saw people slowly showing up, and to our surprise, they just wasn’t your typical pop concert audience, definitely not the intended demographic of Williamsburg hispters or Chelsea club-goers.  There were older couples, then there were parents with teenagers.  We started to wonder if we were at the right place!  Not until a guy wearing Spring western scarf with checker pattern and a hat , and then a girl wearing long boots showed up that we were sure that we were at the right place!  Now Zankel hall is at the basement level of Carnegie Hall, and without knowing too much of Carnegie Hall’s history, I bet it’s newly renovated because everything seems fairly modern and new.  The acoustic was nice, they could have sang without the mic!

The Bird and the Bee was a two person group consists of Inara George and Greg Kurstin where Inara handles vocal while Greg handles piano.  Their music is so difficult to describe - it’s along the lines of Indie-pop, electric-pop.  They sounded futuristic and yet very 60s, it’s an odd combination that is very unique.  Inara has an amazing voice – even when she has a cold she still sounds good – she did has a cold at the time of the concert.  But she’s such a trooper that she even joke about it. “Do I take Sudafed or do I drink?” she said, “so I drank!”  She has such an adorable personality, so very much like my other favorites like Regina Spektor or Imogen Heap!

Now when I said their music has a bit of 60s, it can be reflected on their fashions, just look at the way she dressed.  In the concert she dressed all white with turtleneck and mini skirt but with a transparent plastic dress on top with colorful circle like a human twister game! She’s totally lovely!  The 3 backup singers also dressed in similar fashions.  They sang many songs from their debut album, EPs and the brand new album “Ray Guns are not just the future” that was released back in January.  The funniest moment was when they sang the song F***ing Boyfriend with audience participation – it’s so strange to associate a place like Carnegie Hall with the F word – She said something along the lines of, “I know it’s the Carnegie Hall but comeon!” we all laughed and singalong~

I have to mention Greg’s mad piano skill! it was so amazing!  He’s a man with few words – which is fine by me because he’s so dreamy!  He drew laughs by replying to Inara’s rambling with a single word: “cool!”  In sum, it was an awesome concert! Inara did 100% even with a cold! Because of the no photography policy of Carnegie Hall, I have yet to find any set of pictures from the show, and as always I didn’t bring my own camera.  The one at the top is the only one I found, from usatoday. Below is a picture of them that I like and a live recording of the absolute last song “How Deep Is Your Love” she did in the concert with audience participation – She was so great to come back out to sing this encore, even if she can barely sang by this time.

Related posts:

1. Concert
2. Regina Spektor Concert
3. KT Tunstall Concert
4. Eason Chan’s concert
5. Mraz at Radio City Music Hall

Tagged: concert · Music · the Bird and the Bee