Crystal B.!

Cyndi R. and I had a rare and wonderful opportunity last weekend to see Crystal Bowersox in concert at Dominican University. (A big shout out to Cyndi  for making this happen.) This concert was the first in a season of interesting entertainments offered by Dominican, which is not all that far from Niles, in River Forest. (Here is a link to their schedule.)

I was really excited to see Crystal live, as was the rest of the middle-aged to elderly  audience. What?  Her fan base  skews older, and that may not be good news for imminent stardom. The house, a medium sized auditorium with a balcony, was full but there were a lot of empty seats in the back. She toted a band consisting of drums, harmonica (played by Ryan, her nanny), bass guitar, another guitar, and a musician who played the zither, mandolin, and told bad jokes during tune ups. She played acoustic guitar and wore a stupid bucket hat throughout.

In truth, I enjoyed her many of her numbers, but there is something about her that still leaves me cold, as it did on American Idol. She is not a very entertaining performer. This was compounded by a poor sound system and a band that did not do her credit. The bass was much too heavy and the drum playing was mechanical. There was one number in the early middle portion of the show where everything jelled and the house rocked. But it didn't happen again. Here is a link to several songs taken from the audience.

It seems that Bowersox is developing a little country vibe. Country seems to be the new rock. Crystal's opening act was Corey Crowder, who gave a more polished country-ish performance. He got a lot of mellow sound out of his voice, an acoustic guitar, and an electric mandolin. He also wore a stupid hat.