Gregory Alan Isakov w/ The Ghost Orchestra and Andrea Gibson

So I know this concert was last week, but I think I needed a week to process. That, and because I'm a procrastinator. 

This last month I've been all over Gregory Alan Isakov's balls. He recently put out an album with a collection of his songs that were re-recorded with The Colorado Symphony Orchestra. And these re-re's are out-fucking-standing. This album is probably my favorite album released this year and I've listened to it so much already that the songs have become the soundtracks to my dreams. I've been waking up in cold sweats yelling "CHURCHES AND TRAINS...THEY ALL LOOK THE SAME TO ME NOOOOOWWWWWW".

As soon as I found out GAI was going to be coming to Thalia Hall (pronounced with a lisp) in Chicago I pinched my nipples, squealed, jumped into the russian spliz and blocked out my calendar. I was stoked. I originally planned to go with my wife so we could watch arm in arm with each other's hands in each other's rear jean pockets, but she ended up having to work. Naturally Joel, my fellow SYFFAL compatriot, was my back up plan. And his rear jean pockets were just fine...a little warmer and a little looser. He even offered to hold my beer in his cargo pocket...such a gentleman. An unstylish gentleman, but still a gentleman. 

Surprisingly, this was both of our first trips to Thhhhalia Hall even though we go to a decent amount of concerts and a lot of great bands play there. Anyhoo, I can now say I'm a Thalia Hall FAN because it checks off a lot marks on my venue list: good beer list, good air conditioning, chalk board walls in the bathroom (and/or clean bathrooms), easy to get to, great sound, and they take credit card. Seriously, fuck all these venues who take cash only. Your tax dodging ways are an inconvenience to EVERYBODY. 

The opener for the show was Andrea Gibson, a spoken word poet. At first I had a narrow minded thought when I muttered to myself 'what the fuck'? I've never seen live spoken word. I just see how it's portrayed on TV and movies. You know hippy dippy shit that makes coffee house patrons feel uncomfortable. I really didn't have any idea what I was in for....and that was Andrea Gibson wringing out my guts. Holy fuck. 

I'm not going to do justice in capturing the mood, but I'd like to remind you that this was the Monday after the Orlando masacre. I actually went past metal detecting wands without the thought of it in my head, but Andrea reminded us about it after her first poem because a) we were at a 'soft target' and b) she is a lesbian. Those two factors combined were the inspiration behind the second poem. From that point on I, along with the rest of the crowd, just stared in silence taking in all of her words. The whole time I didn't even want to look at Joel because I thought he'd be crying and that would've made me cry. 

So much of the content was heavy and her delivery was intensely emotional. It was just so fucking beautiful and sometimes sad and sometimes funny. She told us stories, like about how she got her middle name from her Grandma named Faye and she hated that name when she was younger and still in the closet because her initials were AFG. She was alway afraid the kids at school would be able to decipher the initials into FAG and figure out she was gay. It's a simple story, but for a brief second it was like I felt the weight of the burden she carried on her shoulders ao long ago. It just left me standing there thinking that it's not fucking fair that LGBT children should live in fear or hate who they are. And I'd also pick up on beautiful metaphors that have been stuck in my head (even a week later), like in one of her love poems she said 'you turned my knee caps into skipping stones.' Really, I could go on and on, but I'm not. Just go fucking see her if you are lucky enough to have her come to your area. 

So, i don't know know to delicately transition to GAI in this review, and quite honestly, I didn't know how I was going to be able transition my mood when I was at the fucking show because it felt like my heart was ripped out of my chest at that point. The answer was grab a beer, needle and thread. In all honesty though, the transition was just natural. GAI is quite the poet himself, and if anything, the spoken word opening just made me want to listen to his lyrics even more. 

For this show, GAI was with his band and the Ghost Orchestra, a (about) 7 piece string section. However, in select cities he's performing with a full orchestra.  And while certain songs like 'Liars' didn't pack a full punch because they were at a numeric disadvantage in comparison to the album, they were still fulfilling and goosebumping my taint. 

I mentioned in my review of his album with The Colorado Symphony Orchestra a couple of weeks ago that I'm a GAI virgin. I've never heard any of his music until my friend Alex sent me the video for 'Liars' so I'm still in that phase where I'm pinpointing the traits that help me understand why I love him. Seeing him live with Joel helped this process. For example, his voice. Joel pointed out that GAI sings through a mic that makes him sound like he's singing through a transistor radio in the 20's. It's just another ingredient in his recipe that helps contribute to the warm and dry vibe he creates. AND as I swayed like a white person in the crowd I realized that many of his songs are in 3/4, which is maybe while listening to the album I feel like I'm being gently rocked against his warm bosom.  

Really everything about this show was perfect. The songs were super chill and super beautiful. Even with the smaller orchestra, who kicked ass, GAI squeezed everything he could out of them. They delicately built the songs and exploded at all the right times.  And normally I don't mention the crowd, but we deserved some props too. We were fucking awesome, patient, courteous and quiet. I love when the audience creates a mood to let an artist's songs resonate how they need to resonate.

My only complaint is that GAI didn't play my new favorite song 'Master and A Hound'. I wanted to see how he picked that song on the guitar AND I snuck in a snow globe to hold up in place of the lighter app on my iPhone. I guess there is always next time. And if you didn't get that last reference to a snow globe then go fucking familiarize yourself with Gregory Alan Isakov. I'M NOT GOING TO TELL YOU AGAIN.