The Bird and The Bee, and me

I did not know what to expect from seeing the Bird and the Bee before I went to their concert last night at the El Rey. I bought the tickets about a month ago after I found them on Inara George's MySpace page. I love George, who does the lead vocals and plays bass in the Bird. I first found out about George more than two years ago through an ex-boyfriend who played her solo album, All Rise for me one day as we drank tea. I remember first being struck by the beauty of her voice, and then being delighted by the lovely melodies, and the well-crafted lyrics. She'll rock out and be fun and biting in one song, and then be vulnerable and wistful in the next. So when I listened to a couple of songs from the Bird and the Bee it took me a bit to get used to how different the songs were from George's solo stuff. The melodies seemed to be sparser, and the lyrics more otherworldly than All Rise. So I arrived at the El Rey with my sister, not knowing if I'd really enjoy the Bird and the Bee, but looking forward to seeing Mike Andrews at least.

I ended up staying for the encore. Maybe it's more than partly because George is such a great performer, but I really enjoyed the show. The music was great, and there were songs that I ended up dancing a bit to, when I was worried that all of their songs were going to be slow and overly cerebral. Of the slower songs there was one in particular that I really loved called "I'm a Broken Heart" that I found to be so beautiful live. The melody has just the right amount of melancholy, and George's voice was so strong and yet had a bit of fragility to it. I guess it's time to go out and buy their CD...