Indigo Girls w/ Michelle Malone at Weesner Amphitheater, MN Zoo (17 July 2015)
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Photo Gallery
07/21/15 Chicago, IL Vic Theatre *
07/23/15 New York, NY City Winery NYC * 07/24/15 Englewood, NJ Bergen Perf Arts Ctr. * 07/25/15 Westhampton Beach Performing * 07/26/15 Camden, NJ “XPoNential Music Festival” 07/28/15 Vienna, VA Filene Center At Wolf Trap 07/29/15 Selbyville, DE Freeman Stage * 08/07/15 Indianapolis, IN Indiana State Fair 09/12/15 Rendezvous Music Festival 09/17/15 Houston, TX House Of Blues 09/18/15 Dallas, TX House Of Blues 09/20/15 Austin, TX Paramount Theatre 09/22/15 Nashville, TN Ryman Auditorium 09/23/15 Birmingham, AL Alys Robinson Stephens 09/25/15 Germantown Perf. Arts Center 09/26/15 Atlanta, GA McDonough Field 10/22/15 Toronto, ON Roy Thomson Hall 11/15/15 Detroit, MI Sound Board * = with Michelle Malone
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Playing the Weesner Amphitheater at the Minnesota Zoo is always a unique experience – some bands just try a little harder to literally fit in with the environment more than others… like by wearing animal hats. Indigo Girls with opener Michelle Malone, did just that at a sold out, steamy stop on their latest tour over the weekend.
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Michelle Malone
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Stronger than You Think – it’s not only the name of Michelle Malone’s just released 13th album (on Loud/Strange Bird Songs), but my reaction to her voice and stage presence, still as vibrant as the last time I saw her play live, way back in her Drag The River days of the early ‘90s. The Georgia native worked in a few new songs, like the opening ‘Vivian Vegas’ during her 35 min. set, as well as a handful of her older songs.
“When we left Atlanta it was 98 degrees… I do feel right at home”, Malone remarked after the first song, looking out at the throng of overheated listeners fanning themselves with venue programs. “You know it’s going to be a great show when you break your G-string”, Malone mentioned after a particularly feverish ‘Tighten Up the Springs’ broke a string.
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Michelle Malone (closeup)
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The setlist-listed ‘I Don’t Wanna Know’ (co-written with the Indigo’s Amy Ray) was subbed out for the solo acoustic ‘I Got an Angel’ and Malone ended with slide guitar flourishes on ‘Feather in a Hurricane’. Any fan of Sheryl Crow, Bonnie Raitt, or Lucinda Williams should see what Michelle Malone has been up to; and though she returns locally late next month, it’s likely for a private house concert.
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Emily Saliers
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Thirty years after first making music together, Amy Ray and Emily Saliers a.k.a. the Indigo Girls are way past just being closer to fine; in their loyal fans’ eyes, they are the very epitome of fine. With a new album released last month, One Lost Day (IG/Vanguard Records), fans (mostly couples and females) packed in anticipation to hear the new songs and old favorites.
Their nearly two-hour set was often a sing-a-long, beginning with the opening ‘Least Complicated’ onward. and the night was even more special for Saliers as her father Don, a retired minister, watched joyfully from a center seat. Warming up for the following night’s appearance at the Eaux Claires Festival, where they would play underrated 1994 album Swamp Ophelia in its entirety, the Zoo audience was treated to several selections from that disc, including the oft-covered ‘Power of Two’.
The band was tight and well-rehearsed, with violinist Lyris Hung making a strong impression and UK keyboardist Carol Isaacs returning to the fold. ‘Reunion’ and ‘Mystery’ both also from Swamp Ophelia were especially evocative; delicate but dark, each in their own way.
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Amy Ray
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The new album was represented with just over half of the tracks played live, with the new songs somewhat downbeat lyrically, but ably fitting within the group’s canon of songs. The long and lyrically dark tale of ‘Findlay, OH 1968’ took a positive upswing with crowd favorite ‘Get Out the Map’ following, and Ray’s ‘Spread the Pain Around’ and ‘The Rise of The Black Messiah’ were tough but vital listens with the pain injected in lines describing failed relationships and racial inequalities.
The anthemic ‘Go’ (with the audience raising its hands on cue) and stargazing ‘Galileo’ ended the main set, with the crowd yelling for more almost immediately.
Donning those animal hats for the encore lent some levity to the very serious ‘Messiah’, which then transformed into a party for the closing ‘Closer to Fine’, with Michelle Malone joining on stage and the audience and band dueling, as to who could sing the loudest. Animal hats aside, Indigo Girls proved why their “power of two” still endures some thirty years later.
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Indigo Girls at Weesner Amphitheater, MN Zoo (17 July 2015) |