Joanna Nawesome.

It's my duty to post a concert review. If you haven't already, read Optimistic's fully adequate review. Mine will just be frosting on top of that.

First of all, Joanna was a different kind of person that I'd imagined. This is a pretty new picture of her here, on the right, and it makes her look like some outrageous Native-American-themed tree-hugger. But she's not. This picture actually conjures ideas of Bjork, even outside of the singing realm--the Bjork that wears waterfowl to formal events. But Joanna wasn't like that at all.

She was bashful, and it was really charming. She cuddled right up to her harp and all but blushed when we clapped. It was really quite refreshing, contrasted with the rock star demeanor.

That being said, once she started playing, she grooved. She started with a few tunes from The Milk-Eyed Mender., and it really moved. It had more syncopation and boogie than comes through on the album, and it really got you moving in your seat. It felt vaguely funk-influenced. Just barely. Regardless, it was the funkiest harp-playing I've ever heard.

The stuff with the band was pretty cool, too. I was worried that it would drown out, or at least take attention off of, the harp, but the harp still remained front and center (musically, as well as spatially). The instrumentation (guitar/banjo, guitar/mandolin, accordian/saw, and drums) gave it a very indie feel, but the album disagrees--it's with an orchestra, and it has a definite movie soundtrack feel. They're both good... they're just surprisingly different.

Overall, the concert was terrific. Even better than I expected, and I had pretty high expectations for it. The best part was that it was great simply on the merits of the music--it didn't need any on-stage antics to make it good. It was superb all on its own.

Also, as a point of interest, Joanna's one year older than me.