My Brightest Diamond Live Review

I almost never get to shows on time. I used to, I used to be all about it. But now even if I try and pretend to get there on time, I find an excuse on the way to duck into a bar or grab food on the way to a show. That way I don't deal with a band who isn't going to get much support from a distracted audience obviously waiting impatiently for somebody else, sadly, usually myself included, and a band who also probably didn't get a proper sound check.

I did that on Saturday night when I was going to see Sufjan Stevens play at Town Hall. I showed up late into My Brightest Diamond's set and I really regret it.

I hate the name My Brightest Diamond, not that that matters, and the single was a little too pretty, a little too note perferct, for my tastes. I hadn't heard the album, but all this made me a little lazy about getting to the show on time.

In a very real way Shara Worden's last three or four songs stole the show for me. As impressive, as charismatic, as majestic as Sufjan Stevens' huge show was, MBD was deep, ballsy, had some blues, and seemed to fight effortlessly for the audience. I felt as though she was sort of challenging them to ignore her, even though people were won over rather easily.

Between songs, her stage presence is non existent, then takes over a measure into each song. She introduces herself and songs with a somewhat meek, and shy voice, only to launch herself fully into the song with a powerful, rich voice that in the live setting seems less self conscious, less practiced, than what I'd heard so far. It doesn't sound unrehearsed, but raw and very, very talented and impossible to ignore.

If you are planning on catching Sufjan Stevens on tour, I would highly recommend being there in time to see My Brightest Diamond's opening set. The sold out tour with Sufjan ends in two weeks, at which point I imagine Shara will be planning her own tour.

I have yet to pick up My Brightest Diamond's disc, but plan to soon. Here is first single from her release on Asthmatic Kitty entitled Bring Me the Workhorse. I would post footage from a live set, but I never enjoy the sound quality recorded by cell phones:

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