02.22.2011 - Joshua Radin @ The Vogue
March 15, 2011
The Vogue
Indianapolis, IN
‘Twas a generally young crowd who came out to see Joshua Radin at The Vogue on this chilly February day in Indianapolis. The Vogue almost took on the persona of a listening room for this show – everyone was extremely respectful of Laura Jansen, Cary Brothers, and Joshua Radin as they awed people with some truly inspired singer-songwriter tunes.
Laura Jansen was first on the bill at The Vogue. The cool thing about Laura, Cary, and Joshua is that they are all honest-to-goodness friends who met playing at a little safe haven for songwriters in L.A. – the hotel café. Just as a side note, go check out their calendar at www.hotelcafe.com/calendar. The caliber of musicians they have play there is probably one of the only things that could make me want to move to L.A.
Back to Laura – she told a little story at the beginning of her set about how Joshua Radin was the first person to give her a chance to quit waiting tables and make a full-time job out of music. How cool is that? Of course, she then went on to mention how she is the only girl on the tour bus, and that the boys hadn’t showered that day.
Lovely. Ahh, the life of a touring musician. Laura’s instrument of choice is the keyboard. Laura is actually Dutch, and holds dual citizenship in the U.S. and The Netherlands. Laura performed her song “Single Girls”, which climbed up to number 70 on the Dutch Single Top 100 chart. I loved that Laura put her own twist on Kings of Leon’s “Use Somebody”, claiming she has “taken all of the rock out of it”. Her version is really beautiful, despite being rock-less – just her on a stage with the keyboard. So beautiful in fact that it got all the way up to #8 on the Dutch Single Top 100.
The first of the unclean men on the tour, Cary Brothers, was up next. Joshua was kind enough to lend Cary his band for the evening (and I’m assuming the entire tour). You may have heard Cary’s song “Blue Eyes”, which ended up on the Garden State soundtrack. It’s a really great song, which Cary did as a duet that night with Laura Jansen. Beautiful harmonies these two have! Brothers has had a ton of songs on television shows, which has become an increasingly popular means of reaching a large audience for indie musicians.
Joshua Radin emerged onto the stage after a short break, donning some sort of floppy stocking cap – maybe a nod to the chilly temps outside, maybe trying to cover up his second-day hair – one cannot be sure. Like Cary Brothers, Joshua Radin has also had a TON of song placements on tv and in movies. Chances are you’ve heard his stuff even if you aren’t exactly sure who he is. I’ve heard Joshua’s music referred to as “whisper-rock”, and that’s just about as perfect a description of his style as I could come up with. He doesn’t belt out the songs, you are almost forced to pay close attention to catch all of the lyrics, but it’s worth the effort.
Radin played quite a few of his songs, including “No Envy, No Fear”, the title track from his latest album “The Rock and The Tide”, “Brand New Day”, “Closer” (my personal favorite!), and “Today” of Ellen DeGeneres fame. Joshua shared a story about how “Brand New Day” was written – basically he was going through a really bad break-up, and was writing a bunch of really depressing songs while not leaving bed for nearly a year. He thought he’d better write something upbeat before everyone thought he was just some depressed and depressing guy. Besides hearing “Closer” live, one of my favorite parts of the show was when Joshua stepped away from the microphone early in the show to sing unplugged for just a minute. Talk about a true test of vocal ability – singing to a crowded room without amplification is really quite something. And his voice is honestly amazing without any help at all.
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