Esthero on Sunday...

[Sweetjoy]

Did anyone go? I am SO disappointed to have been out of town and missed her this weekend. Would it be worth driving to Philly tonight to see her? I saw her last when she toured with Gus Gus in '99 (?), LOVE her first album, almost all of her guest vocal work and think the new album has some interesting stuff on it.

[groovyside]

sounds from the Post review that she doesn't sound too much like she did in '99 (sounds really dance-y.... and a 'blasting horn section'?!?!).  i really dug her 1st record, too - wish i'd seen her the 1st time around!
 
 http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/07/25/AR2005072501293.html
 
   

Esthero
 
 In the seven-year hiatus between Esthero's debut album, "Breath From Another," and her latest effort, "Wikked Lil' Grrrls," she has abandoned her moody trip-hop vibe in favor of a more up-tempo, danceable style. But at the 9:30 club on Sunday night, she led her nine-piece band through a nearly two-hour set that balanced the new sound with her older material.
 
 Esthero periodically treated the audience to a cappella snippets of tracks from her debut, to wild applause. After an ecstatically received version of "Superheroes," she exclaimed, "You're making me feel like you don't like my new [stuff]!" But her newer material received quite a reaction as well: Shouts of "Sing it, girl!" during the ballad "Gone" distracted Esthero, inducing a fit of giggles. And the crowd even sang and danced to an acoustic version of "We R in Need of a Musical Revolution," despite its coming at the end of a late night. (An unadvertised R&B opening set by one of Esthero's backup singers, Toya Alexis -- a former "Canadian Idol" contestant -- delayed the main set.)
 
 A few of Esthero's songs featured overly dramatic arrangements and a blasting horn section, most notably the saucy and off-color "If Tha Mood." Even through such theatrical numbers, Esthero never stopped smiling -- and rarely stopped dancing. During her final song, "Balmes (a Better Life)," she bounced through the crowd and then vanished silently backstage, hopefully buoyed enough by the crowd's relentless enthusiasm to stick with this style and not completely reinvent herself again.
 
 -- Catherine P. Lewis