Granada « Lawn With Gnomes

Not gonna lie, last night was probably the highlight of my internship at the Granada Theater.

I’ve been a long time fan of Imogen Heap, as in, I had iMegaphone on cassette tape back in 1998 and my old friend Ryan Obermeyer did the art work for Speak For Yourself. When I heard that she had chosen the Granada as the venue for her Dallas performance I had an internal SQUEEEEE! Think flaming gay man with flailing arms excited running down a hallway excited. But as most know me, I am a calm natured in real life and not so ready to start fires with my gayness, so I kept my cool but with a big smile.

The Show

I unexpectedly managed to get in during the sound check for Immi. When I say unexpected, I mean I didn’t realize she’d be doing sound check so late. She literally left the stage minutes before people entered the venue.

My good friend Eva and I sat and watched as Immi tested various equipment and songs in her non-stage clothes and her simple hair up in a bun do. It was one of those “damn this job is so awesome” moments.

Then in a unbelievably packed to the hilt Granada Theater I watched Back Ted-n-Ted and Tim Exile play with what I like to call “toys” on stage, working their craft to the delight of the crowd.

When Imogen hit the stage she did as I expected, wonderful. She’s got a charmed presence on stage that is endearing to fans of her music. Her tinkering with the equipment, song restarts and mumbling to herself into an open mic during the show never felt like a disappointment, it just added charm to the show.

She played nearly an equal amount from both of her mainstream albums and nothing from iMegaphone. One of my favorite songs from Eclipse, Bad Body Double was presented as almost more of a rap version than the album’s version. With Buffi Jacobs of Polyphonic Spree Immi performed another favorite, Aha! which I have always thought of as very much like a Tim Burton/Danny Elfman composed song with Imogen Heap doing vocals. Come to think of it, even the tree and lighting for the tour almost seems like early Tim Burton (but a little more feminine).

During Hide and Seek and Just For Now Imogen “played the crowd like an instrument” # which admittedly sent chills through me as I heard the perfectly synchronized voices of the people below rise up and meet with Imogen’s vocals. It was one of those moments I live for when seeing an artist perform live.

Behind the Granada I waited in the cold along with many other fans to get an autograph and a photo with Imogen. While it was chilly, it was worth the wait. She’s just as pleasant in person as she is on the stage. She even got the group of fans to sing Happy Birthday to a girl named NayNay which I’m sure made for one super happy fan and a wonderful birthday present!

The techie in me took the time to put together an RSS feed of links to postings all over the web about the show using Yahoo Pipes and Imogen’s ingenious idea to use hashtags/tags for every show on the tour. You can click here to view it. Also embedded below are some photos and videos I took. Enjoy!