The (Mostly) True Tales of a Brandi Carlile Fan, Part 2

Part Two: The Concert

The opening band, The Fighting Machinists, actually consist mostly of members of Brandi’s band. A long time ago, before Brandi met twins Tim and Phil Hanseroth, they were part of a band called The Fighting Machinists. They wrote catchy rock-bordering-on-heavy-metal tunes, and employed a drummer with a zillion tattoos and a spitting problem worse than a camel. When Brandi met them, she was a fan of theirs, and finally just asked them to play in her band. The Fighting Machinists broke up, but were reunited for one night only, at Brandi’s request, to open her show at the Tractor Tavern in Seattle. Are we all caught up now? Good.



The twins and their badass drummer took the stage, opening with a cover of the Bryan Adams classic (if there is such a thing as a Bryan Adams classic) “Heaven.” While covering Bryan Adams seems, on paper, like musical suicide, it actually worked quite well. They rocked out, took a few requests, and played a catchy tune called “Sweet Pea,” which I will soon be trying to figure out how to download. In fact, all of their songs were catchy, including the new one they wrote just so they could sing something new for this show, and I’m finding myself wishing they were still a band. As if they hadn’t won us over enough, they really got us for the last song, when Tim started in with Brandi’s famous line (she later gave him shit about it), “This is a song… by the late, great, Johnny Cash.” They proceeded with a rousing rendition of “Ring of Fire,” only topped by Brandi’s sudden appearance on stage to sing backup.

The Machinists ended their set, but hardly anyone in the bar moved an inch. We were all so riveted and didn’t want to miss one second of Brandi’s show. And we were right in our foresight, because… wow. The girl was on fire, and the audience was too. She played for almost two hours of rousing guitars, searing vocals, hilarious banter, and sweaty brilliance (it was easily 110 degrees in that bar). The boys took the stage and launched into the familiar strains of “Fortunate Son,” a powerful cover of a song that Brandi says has “come back around again.” It’s one of my favorite covers that she does, and opening with that made me shake my head remembering a recent conversation I had with a coworker about politics and music. Brandi was making her statement through music, and the choice to rock out right at the beginning set the tone for the entire show. She played most of her standard fare, but with a few twists – less ballads, more rock, and a few more covers than usual (minus one rather famous one, but I’ll get to that). Right from the beginning, Brandi had this gigantic smile on her face, like she was so pleased with herself for coming up with this whole “singing” idea in the first place. She loved the crowd and we loved her right back. According to the story she told us later on, the Tractor was the first place she ever played with the twins, the first place she ever sold out a gig, and the special place it has in her heart was evident right from the start.

As the song came to an end, Brandi cheered herself on right along with us, reminisced about playing at the Tractor way back when, and introduced the band as “Late Morning Lullaby,” with an ‘I’m so clever’ smirk on her face. They launched into “My Song” with even more gusto than the song before it, with Brandi sporting a surprised smile when we all started singing along, and then acting even more surprised when we didn’t stop for the entire two hours. This was the first Brandi show I’d been to where every single person in that room knew every word to every song, and “What Can I Say” featured an a capella sing along that could put the Indigo Girls and “Closer to Fine” to shame. Brandi was having so much fun with it, and her constant surprise at how well we knew all of her songs – even the ones she herself only wrote a month ago, was adorable.

Her newest addition to the repertoire, “Caroline,” is a song about her one year old niece, whom she calls “a little weirdo.” It’s a rollicking country tune with sweet lyrics, and somehow reminds me of Billy Joel. Forgive my ignorance about music for a second, because to me, there’s something about the rhythm of the many lyrics and the narrative style of the song that’s reminiscent of “Only the Good Die Young,” et al. “Caroline” has become an instant favorite, and we surprised Brandi again by singing along. I think our love for her finally hit home when she launched into “How These Days Grow Long” and called it “new,” and we all scoffed. She wasn’t getting away with anything with this audience. It worked to her advantage, though, when she forgot the lyrics, and we very conveniently sang them for her.

At one point, she stopped and thanked her sister Tiffany for doing her hair, even though “it was all for shit.” This got the audience all riled up, because for whatever reason, curse words make people cheer. That kind of banter was rampant throughout the evening, and it made the night even more intimate. Up next was “Dreams,” another new song which they recorded for their upcoming third album. I’m trying to come up with a way to describe this song, but it’s hard without sounding like a giggly 13 year old at a Jonas Brothers concert. It’s raw, it’s catchy, it’s sexy, and it’s more explicit than any of her other songs. It’s such an intimate song, that we let her sing this one to us, turning us all into the aforementioned 13 year olds. Appropriately enough, this led right into her cover of Radiohead’s “Creep”, with the addition of a dissonant cello. If you’ll excuse my language for a second, this song can only be described as “orgasmic.” Watch it for yourself if you don’t believe me:



The last three songs were standard Carlile fare – “Fall Apart Again" (another new favorite of mine, though the song is old), “Turpentine” (with the requisite 3 part harmony sing along and additional curse words), and “The Story.” For the encore, they hit the stage with “Folsom Prison Blues,” rocking it harder than I’ve ever seen them do it before. Next up was “Pride and Joy,” another new one, and it’s a powerful, poignant song about acceptance. The ending of the song features Brandi and Tim jamming on the electric guitars, an act which the fandom has aptly dubbed “guitar sex” (named for, um, what Brandi looks like she’s doing when she plays the guitar… in case that wasn’t obvious). The band took their bows, and Brandi remained on stage to, um, lighten the mood a bit. By this time of the night, she had our attention so lovingly that she even got away with asking us what she should play… and then not playing any of the requests.

Brandi comes from a family of musicians, so she brought her sister Tiffany on stage with her, and they sang their trademark “Calling All Angels.” But perhaps the highlight of the evening came during the very last song, a parody of classic country called “Same Old You.” The song itself is hilarious and crafty, but it’s the intro to the song which really makes it. Brandi grew up singing classic country tunes, and her random sampling of ridiculous old country songs is always a crowd favorite. She brought her mom up on stage with her to sing “Your Good Girl’s Gonna Go Bad,” and then did her best rendition of “Stand By Your Man,” her voice dripping with irony and sarcasm. She then showed off her yodeling skills (yes, she can yodel too) with “Same Old You,” and took a hasty exit. I didn’t even notice the absence of “Hallelujah” until I inexplicably had to listen to it eight times in a row on the plane coming back to LA.