Shelley Short at Bordello

I like Bordello, but one problem I've noticed so far is at times the crowd doesn't know when to stop talking when someone's performing. I like the space, and the acoustics, but it can be so "intimate" that you can hear EVERYTHING other people are talking about. Especially at the bar. So, when I went to see Shelley Short and Charlie Wadhams at Bordello last night, though it wasn't packed, there were enough people there talking through the show that I kept getting distracted, and somewhat annoyed. It's OK to talk a bit if you do it softly, so if other people want to listen to the music they won't want to punch you in the face. But a lot of people were talking/laughing really, really loud, when there was no need to, and being super irritating.

Despite the chatter, I had a great time last night. I've been wanting to see Shelley Short live for more than a year. I first found out about her back in February of 2006, when I spent the weekend of that year's Super Bowl in Chicago. I used to go out to Detroit for weeks at a time for my old job, and of course, 2006 was the year the Super Bowl was in Motown. Lucky for me, because hotel rates for that weekend in Detroit were ridiculous (i.e. normally $180/night hotels were $700 or even $1300), I ended up staying in Chicago during the Super Bowl instead. I remember it being a great, if super freezing, weekend. The food was great, I stayed at a nice hotel, the Sofitel, which happened to be relatively cheap because it was off-season... but one of the best things about that weekend trip was reading The Chicago Reader and finding a glowing review of Shelley Short. She happened to be playing that night at the Empty Bottle, and so after having one of the best meals of my life at a restaurant called Spring in Wicker Park, I grabbed a taxi and crossed my fingers that I wouldn't arrive too late for the show... but I did. Really late, actually, as the act right after her was well into their set. The music of that particular band - which was comprised of a very blond and Swedish former model and her grungily hot French boyfriend - didn't quite excite me, so I think I didn't end up seeing their full set. But I got to check out the Empty Bottle, which is a pretty dope venue packed with music lovers, questionable lighting, and smoke. Best of all, even though I hadn't gotten to see her, I ended up buying a copy of Shelley Short's album entitled Captain Wild Horse (Rides the Heart of Tomorrow) based on the praise from the Reader review. When I got back to my hotel room that night at about 1am, looking out at the Chicago skyline and watching French and Brazilian TV (I'm telling you it was a sweet hotel), I turned the TV off for a bit to listen to Short's album... and was happy to find that my trek to the Empty Bottle had been worth it after all. Short's voice is so sweet, her melodies are lovely and can be quirky at times... I was mad that I had missed hearing her live.

But then last night I got a second chance, barely 30 minutes from where I live. Short is fantastic live. She would softly say "Thank you" to the applause after each song with a sweet smile on her face, and then would proceed to belt out her songs when she needed to, or almost whisper the words, creating so much intimacy that I truly felt like I was the only one in the room listening to her sing and strum her guitar, even with all the talking that was going on around me. The only other musician accompanying her was a cellist - it's possible that with any more instruments some of the intimacy would be lost. I talked to her for a bit after the show and soon became shy and self-conscious, but not before telling her that I enjoyed her performance and that I had tried seeing her in Chicago.

The Charlie Wadhams show right after Short was great, too. Before the show Wadhams was nice enough to come up to me, shake my hand, and say with a smile, "Good to see you again," and I was shy enough to say, "Good to see you again, too" and not know what else to say, so I said no more. He played some songs that he didn't play last week, as he was the last band to play and I'm assuming that he had more time play some extra diddies if he wanted to. As I left Bordello I passed Wadhams and his keyboardist, smiled, and told him that it was a great show. He thanked me for hanging out until the end and I felt like less of a jerk for not saying much earlier :).