The Lucy Michelle and the Velvet Lapelles show at DC9 provided me with a “first-ever” concert experience: an opener receiving an encore. And it was a well-deserved honor. What did they do to deserve such audience acclaim? I think I can boil it down to 3 things.
1) Awesome Facial Expressions. Lucy Michelle, besides being an adorable front-woman with a rocking pixie cut and great accessories, has unforgettable facial expression when she sings. The woman squints, grimaces, and scrunches her face in ways that are instantly smile-inducing. And such a fun change from artists who looks overly-serious and/or sexy.
2) Witty banter. As it was Halloween weekend in DC, there were quite a few audience members in costume. Lucy Michelle and the Velvet Lapelles had no issues making comments and observations about their crowd. The best point of interaction came after their beautiful, and quite haunting song “Oh Home.” During the song, three or four guys dressed as sad clowns drunkenly waltzed around the front of the set, creating a very eerie feeling. At the end, the band’s guitarist remarked that the experience of playing the song with Lucy Michelle’s silhouette surrounded by creepy clowns stumbling around in the foreground was something he wouldn’t forget any time soon. Well said, sir.
3) Great sound. I mean, the band rocked. As expected. Lucy Michelle’s vocals are top-quality and her band, composed of cello- ukulele- accordion- bass-players (and clappers!) combine to put on a show that is well worth attending.
So, given these three things, it is easily understandable why the audience literally would not shut up until they delivered an encore. True to their humble and endearing persona, Lucy Michelle and her band-members first asked for the headliner’s agreement… then cheerfully regaled the crowd with a few more show-stopping tunes. It was, all in all, a well-deserved and well-executed encore performance to top off an already stellar show.