Michelle Chamuel

[mercfan3]

I saw Michelle live last weekend. She was fantastic. The set itself is more pop rock live than I expected. (I thought she'd stay with the electronic jazz pop.) But it was great to hear the more full versions of her music. She played the keyboard and bass, and the drummer (Not Theo Katzman, I'm not sure who he is but I'm pretty sure he went to school with them) repeated that she was a better percussionist then him. And I'd love to see her play them and perform sometime. (She has some videos where she's playing a drum bucket thing and singing backup for her friend, but I'd like to see her with the whole set..) For her part, she kept getting caught in all the chords..

She sang a cover that I was unfamiliar with. (I thought it might be an Usher song, but it ended up being a Mary. J song.)

http://youtu.be/uHiyZt_MjyU

It was kind of fun to see her sing an R&B song. She's done most other genres (jazz, rock, pop, electronic) but despite her ties with Usher, I hadn't heard a straight R&B song from her yet. (90s R&B is some of my favorite music too..).

She also sang a few songs from her Reverb Junkie album, which I really love. I enjoy the new songs a lot, but I find her Reverb Junkie stuff is...deeper..(perhaps the best word.) Likely because it's just her. But it's hard music to try and perform, so I always appreciate it when she goes for it. (It's really only meant for studio.)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E2Q59-C0cxQ

I already linked a version of Clarity, which was probably my favorite of the night. That along with "Golden"..which is always my favorite.

I actually got the opportunity to meet her again. She had everyone playing jenga, which was fun. She cheats. She has a competition going between her fans to see who can get the tallest tower from city to city (we didn't win.). And she lets us all cheat..so that's okay. But that was a bit of an original idea, and we all had a fun time. (There was an adorable child, who I was near when we were waiting outside. First, she had the same glasses as Michelle, which was adorable. Then she got a guitar pick because it was her birthday..and the child yelled that she could "die of happiness." )

On a side note, I kept thinking how little she (Michelle. The child was also little..but I'm talking about Michelle..) and then I took a picture of her..and we are the same height. Good to know how little people think I am...

Also, here's a fun little article about the process of making "Face The Fire" http://www.antimusic.com/news/14/Novembe...oice.shtml