Ingrid Michaelson shares her own brand of holiday cheer with New York City

December 18, 2008 at Town Hall

By Eleanor Whitney
Published: December 21st, 2008 | 1:10pm

The idea of holiday-themed concerts usually conjures cringe-worthy images of choruses belting out off-key, overly sincere Christmas carols, and high-kicking Rockettes dressed as toy soldiers. However, there are those who want to celebrate the season without the schmaltz, and Ingrid Michaelson and her friends provided a necessary anecdote to the usual holiday revues at her second annual “Holiday Hop.”

An eager crowd packed the elegant (and sold-out) Town Hall, where the stage was festooned with lights and sparkling Christmas decorations. Those who arrived early were treated to a brief opening set of Greg Laswell’s thoughtful, folk-infused piano pop. Laswell commented that he would be “the least holiday-happy act of the evening” and joked that “Ingrid’s asked me to play only sad songs so she looks cheerier.”

No one seemed too bummed out by Laswell’s set, however. The holiday cheer factor was ratcheted up between sets by a contest to find Ingrid’s biggest fan. The evening’s hosts brought four audience members on stage and asked them to play a version of "Rock, Paper, Scissors,” modified for the holidays as “Snow, Santa, Tree.” Another surprise was a short set by satirical holiday vocal quintet the Yule Logs. Supposedly hailing from Pensacola, Florida, and sporting over-sized, red-and-white striped shirts, and fake mustaches, they turned out to be Ingrid Michaelson and her band singing off-kilter, off-key odes to the holidays such as “The Christmas Clap.”

Michaelson returned to the stage for her set looking elfish in red and green tights and candy-cane-striped short shorts. Her tight top caused her to fidget awkwardly and she joked that “cockroaches and these bras are the only things that will outlast a nuclear war.” Her performance of smoothed-out indie pop featured crowd-pleasing songs such as “Keep Breathing,” “Breakable,” “The Way I Am,” and “Be OK.” She also shared a new song, “Everybody,” which she and her band arranged during sound check on their recent tour. Michaelson’s strong singing and the soaring backing vocal performances of her band members filled the room and drew sighs from the crowd. However, despite Michaelson’s high energy between song banter, the set felt too long and the high-pitched shrieking of her more demonstrative fans grew to be grating.

The set’s holiday highlights included a performance of the haunting, traditional hymn “In the Bleak Midwinter,” for which her father, Carl Michaelson, had arranged the music. It featured a choir composed of Michaelson’s singer-songwriter friends who she admitted were being paid in “pizza and vodka.” This was followed by the more upbeat song “The Hat,” which she explained was not a Christmas song but “an Ingrid song” to exuberant reception.

The evening closed with a three-song encore, ending with “You and I,” during which Michaelson played ukulele and her band and the choir surrounded her on stage to sing along, giving the end of the evening an improvisational, party feel. As the audience shuffled out to Mariah Carey’s “All I Want for Christmas Is You,” it was hard for even the most reticent not to feel the cheer.

For more photos from this show visit Venus Zine's Flickr page.

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