Imogen Heap

I went solo to an Imogen Heap concert at Dante's in Portland tonight. I was turned on to Imogen when I saw her perform "Goodnight and Go" on David Letterman a couple of weeks ago. Lo and behold, when I checked her concert schedule, she was coming to Portland.

She put on a fantastic show, packed with songs from her wonderful new album, Speak For Yourself, as well as a couple of tunes from her Frou Frou album(s). You can hear the new album in full on her generous web site: ImogenHeap.com.

Though she had a sore throat (from "having too much fun and it catching up" with her), she powered through her songs with only a scratch here and there. I feel sorry for the faithful in Seattle who are planning to see her tomorrow. Her voice will be shot. Highlights of her show tonight were Goodnight and Go, Hike and Seek, an acoustic Clear The Area, and what she calls her favorite song, Headlock.

The crowd was mixture of 30 somethings, predominantly women, with a strong gay presence.

This was my very first concert experience where the main draw was a woman I realized just now. I've seen Jewel and Dido as part of a Christmas ensemble concert headlined by the Bare Naked Ladies, but Imogen's show was the first I've ever been to where I went to see a woman singer.

Opening act, Zoe Keating, was interesting, but certainly not the type of opening act that gets the crowd excited. She's a cello player who samples her own pluckings then lays them over other sounds and puts all of that on top of her live playing. I could appreciate the artistry, but the music was the kind of stuff lite radio stations play late at night to put you to sleep.