Kelsea Ballerini Concert

Image found here

I had never seen Kelsea Ballerini in concert before, and I like a lot of her songs, so I wanted to see her live. I waited to buy tickets at the Anthem box office to save costs on fees, but I should have waited until the day of: the show never sold out, and general admission tickets were selling for only $20, when I had paid $50 for the same thing just a few weeks earlier. AND I had such a hard time finding someone to go with me! My go-to country concert friend had to work, but I still bought the tickets knowing he couldn't make it. That may have been a mistake: he's my only friend who likes country music as much as I do! Eventually I did have a friend begrudgingly agree to go with me. I didn't realize how hard it would be to give away a ticket for free!

After my friend and I grabbed drinks, we stood pretty close to the stage and waited for the show to start. Georgia Webster was the opener, and we both liked her! She sort of had Taylor Swift vibes, in that she's young, singing about young love experiences, and she's a pretty blonde (go figure). She had great stage presence and was working the crowd, which I thought was impressive given her age (she just recently graduated from high school!). Here are some of her songs:

X's (about going to a club underage and having X's on her hands)

Tell Your Mom

Push & Pull

Not Sayin'

Tattoos

After last week's Maddie & Tae concert (read that blog post here), I thought this performance would have two openers. But Kelsea went right afterward! Of course the stage production was great, with three big screens showing lots of cool and colorful images, and a rising platform in the back (which was very helpful for anyone having a hard time seeing over tall people). And her costume changes were great; so many sparkles! Here are some photos I took over the night:

Here are some songs she played that I had never heard before (but my friend and I really liked them):

You're Drunk, Go Home

If You Go Down (I'm Going Down Too) (This song made me think of The Chicks' Goodbye Earl song.)

Love is a Cowboy (Speaking of the Chicks, she merged this song with a ballad of Cowboy Take Me Away, which I thought was very well done!

I Quit Drinking

What I Have (I love songs about gratitude and thankfulness!)

Graveyard (She said that with so many albums and songs, she can't perform all of them. So for this tour of ten cities, she was going to pick one random song to perform at each location, and this was the one chosen for this show.)

And here are some of her songs that are my particular favorites:

Peter Pan (This song came out when I was still online dating, and it resonated with me: many men in DC have Peter Pan syndrome because they never want to grow up!)

Heartfirst

Yeah Boy

Half of My Hometown (I do like this song, but it's been a little overplayed on the radio recently...)

Miss Me More

Love Me Like You Mean It

Dibs

Homecoming Queen (She performed this as a duet with Georgia.)

Legends (I assume this was her final encore song, but my friend and I left a bit early.)

My friend said she had a good time, so I'm glad she gave this concert a chance! I don't think I have any other country concerts coming up. I was hoping to go to Sunday in the Country, but I think it's going to rain, so that wouldn't be any fun. But I will be going to a few plays, so stay tuned for more blog posts about my theater adventures!

Maddie & Tae Concert

Image found here

I waited more than two years for this Maddie & Tae concert because of COVID-19! The original tickets were for June 2020, and I didn't end up going until this past weekend. Jeez! But I'm glad it finally happened. Plus, I hadn't been to the Baltimore Soundstage is years, so I was excited to go back there (not that the venue is great, but it is small, so more intimate). 

The whole line-up was women, so I was excited about that! The first opener was Abbey Cone. I'd never heard of her before, but she looks the part: very pretty, and she had the best make-up of the night! It was just her and her guitar up there, so that was pretty cool. Here are two of her songs:

Rhinestone Ring (This was my favorite song of hers!)

Hate Me

Next up was Sacha, who I have the feeling wants to be the Beyoncé of country music. I didn't like her set as much because I could barely hear her over the drums. This may not have been her fault: the mix might not have been right, and her mic (which she had covered in lipstick by the end of her show) wasn't loud enough. I thought the best part of her performance was the Taylor Swift medley she did! But, not a bad way to engage a room full of young, female, country music fans, so she's smart in that way. Here are a few videos:

Pretty Please (This is actually the only song of hers I remember...)

Cheers

We Did

Then we had a long wait before the main act came on. But the crowd was so excited when they finally did! I wish I had listened to more Maddie & Tae songs before going to the concert (I always say I'll do that and then never do), but they did sing a few songs I had forgotten about. And they sang all the songs I love, so that was great! Here's a good mix:

Girl in a Country Song (their first big hit!)

Fly

Through the Madness (also had never heard this song before!)

Trying on Rings (so romantic!)

Bathroom Floor (I had never heard this song before, but I liked it!)

Woman You Got (One of their newer songs, so I don't know it as well, but it is fun!)

Die from a Broken Heart (This was their last encore song. I'm surprised they ended the show with such a sad song. But it's probably one of their most popular hits: all women can relate to this!)

Just a great girl-power country night! Next up: Kelsea Ballerini at the Anthem on Wednesday night! Stay tuned for that blog post!

Play Review: "Old Stock: A Refugee Love Story'

 

Image found here

I love seeing plays at Theater J at the Edlavitch Jewish Community Center in Washington, D.C., and while I didn't buy an official subscription this year, I did buy individual tickets for the entire season. The first show for this year is called, "Old Stock: A Refugee Love Story." Who doesn't love a good love story, especially one based on a true story? I was excited to see what I thought would be a romantic play.

However... this show was anything but, unfortunately. The narrator, or "the Wanderer" as he is called (played by Ben Caplan), is a dirty-minded, abrasive, anthropomorphized cartoon character. I thought he was so unlikeable, and then I had to hear him sing (nearly all on his own) for 90 minutes?! He reminded me of that creepy neighbor or uncle who is always talking about inappropriate things (for example, he went on for several minutes listing euphemisms for sex. Three or four, okay, we get the joke. But rambling off for that long? It wasn't funny, and it certainly didn't add anything to the story). And every once in a while he would curse, which was completely unnecessary. Later he explained that this was to bring the audience to modern times, but I think he should give his audience more credit: we can figure out how to extrapolate a refugee story from the early 1900's and bring it into the 21st century without you having to say "fuck" or "shit." It's a like a comedian who depends on four-letter words to make a joke funny: it doesn't work.

Now, I don't know how much Caplan shaped the character and how much he played the role as a baffoon-like Willy Wonka (A top hat and purple coat? Really?) with guidance from the playwright, Hannah Moscovitch, or the director, Christian Barry. This story is based on the love story of Moscovitch's grandparents; if she gave the OK to have this terrible caricature of God (yes, he not only plays the narrator but also God), she should realize that her ancestors would not be proud of this telling of their story. I was disgusted and embarrassed, and I think they would be, too. 

One redeeming part of this play was how talented the musicians were. Shaina Silver-Baird and Eric Da Costa (who play the two lovers) of course acted in the production, but they also sang and played musical instruments. Silver-Baird played the violin, and Da Costa played the clarinet, saxophone, and learned the flute just for this show! And while on stage, Jamie Kronick, the bearded drummer wearing an old-fashioned hat looked Amish, but after the show he revealed his thick head of rock star hair; he even said he got the gig because he played in Caplan's band! And Graham Scott, who composed some of the music for the show, played the keyboard and accordion; he didn't even know how to play the left-hand part of the accordion until he signed on to do this play. Such amazing talent!

I definitely liked the final third of the show best, and that turn-around came for me with the Lullaby song. All of the parts in the play about family were so touching, even when they were devastating. Chaim, the husband, lost his entire family during the Pogroms in Romania. His father did survive the brutal attack on the family, but once he realized his wife and three of his sons had died, he killed himself. Chaim looked forward to having a life in Canada because there was nothing left for him in the Old Country. Chaya, the wife, lost her first husband during their trek to Russia, and because of her malnutrition during that exodus, she could not nurse her first baby, who died as well. When the two characters do marry and have a child, their prayer for their son Samuel to live to be an old man is what all parents should want for their children: long lives. I did appreciate those very personal, touching moments of the story. I just wish they had been at the forefront of the storytelling itself, rather than leaving it up to a weird, à la Cat in the Hat crackpot.

Read my blog reviews of other, BETTER plays I've seen at Theater J:

Talley's Folly

Love Sick (probably my favorite!)

Becoming Dr. Ruth

Compulsion, or the House Behind

*And I never wrote a blog post about seeing the play "Tuesdays with Morrie," but that one was also very good!