Bento Box

Ray LaMontagne is a talented musician. Thanks to a beautiful angel at work I got the chance to see him perform at the Paramount last night. We almost had a whole row to ourselves - my guess was that the record label reserved the entire row and the row in front of us but no one showed up. Unobstructed view ftw.

While his voice and music are great to listen to, I found his performance lacking. Even after three songs there was no word of hello/how ya doin/Seattle you rock~! What the hell was that. And between every other song he took a couple minutes to chat with his band off mic and tune his guitar.

The crowd. Not sure what to say about the crowd. I was 1. the youngest one there (saw a child there though) 2. the only asian. Why am I cursed to always notice these kinds of things? I wish I wasn’t so ultra-sensitive to being a minority. Half the crowd would hoot and hollar and the other half would be ssshhhh-ing the other half because they’re trying to hear what he’s mumbling about. The mumbling - Ray’s mumbling made it seem like he didn’t even want to be there. I kept thinking he was apathetic about performing. Charismatic he is not. He DID say “I love you too” after the MILLIONTH time someone screamed “we love you Ray~” Yeah Ray, you don’t love us. You’re just going through the motions like a guy who’s been in a 10 year loveless relationship.

The music. The music was great. It was Ray LaMontagne though. He much can he really “rock”? During a couple of his slow songs I put my head back and fell into a light sleep. Very peaceful and relaxing- there was no way I could actively concentrate on the music in the dark-dark-dark theatre. His band seemed more energetic than he was. He got the crowd moving when he played a couple up-beat songs. Granted it was the Paramount so there wasn’t much moving to be done anyway. Cramped seats. A movie theater has more legroom. A movie theater wouldn’t have a woman sitting behind me singing along to the few hooks and lines she knows either.

Here’s a short video of one of Ray’s more upbeat songs:

I had a better time enjoying his opening act: David Ford. Charming Brit who played his cute folksy songs that he mixed on the fly. Very talented guy. Lots of emotion. I felt he upstaged Ray. Sucks he only played a 30 minute set. He joked around and told us about the mexican food he had earlier and how bloated he felt.