Amy Macdonald @ Mercury Lounge: Miss Brightside
Before I begin, did you have a happy Free Ben & Jerry's Cone Day or happy Grand Theft Auto IV Release Day?
Before I took in The Verve, I had to at least see a few songs from Miss Amy Macdonald, the Scottish singer-songwriter who no doubt will make a lot of people happy in America once word gets around about how good and skilled she is. The T-MEG (Typical Music Executive Guy) who introduced her was beaming with pride about her New York debut and how big she is going to be. I leaned into my friend and said, "This is type of guy who's ruining the music industry." I joke.
I picked up on Amy a year ago because I found "Poison Prince" such an engaging, upbeat song and it came off beautifully tonight at Mercury. Yeah, she'll get some foot-stomping in these parts.
The setlist
- Poison Prince
- Los Angeles
- Youth of Today
- This Is the Life
- Footballer's Wife
- Mr. Rock n Roll
- Mr. Brightside (The Killers cover)
- Road to Home
- Run
- Let's Start A Band
- Encore: Caledonia
- Barrowland Ballroom
I darted after Road to Home, a song about her dead dog which she licensed for use in football stadiums. Whatever works.
Her voice is so rich for a mere 20-year old woman from Glasgow. She doesn't hide her accent at all in her performance. Al thought she's a Scot, she has a tone similar to Ireland's Dolores O'Riordon. Her songs have a good balance between traditional folk and alt-country/roots, but with a lot of pop bounce.
As a person, she seems like such a cool chick. Obviously, she's easy on the eyes -- looking like a better adjusted, better-nourished version of Christina Ricci. This being her NY debut in front of some record people and the like, she tried to loosen thing up by telling wacky stories or observations like how she ate a pastrami sandwich from Katz just 10 minutes before the show. Not a good idea. Like most Scots, she has easy demeanor.
This Is the Life will get a proper stateside release on August 12th, a good year after its U.K. release. Since then, she overtook Radiohead's In Rainbows one week as the top album in the U.K. Consider me impressed.
She'll probably get pegged as a KT Tunstall type, the folkie, poppie girl from Scotland. She'll get some underground buzz eventually, then she'll hit the mainstream and be made to appear on The View and do corporate gigs for makeup products.
In the end, the music is worth a listen.
Saw you video on youtube...great pics. Went to see Amy with my husband. I first heard her on Fun Radio in Slovakia in November 07, and then Virgin Radio (live stream). I think we were lucky to see her in this wonderfully small venue.
Posted by: JOy Kempf | May 12, 2008 at 01:39 PM