I’m much too tired out to write a whole post about the Jenny Lewis concert I just got home from. So highlights will have to do.

  • Got to the venue way early, since I didn’t have tickets and didn’t want to risk not getting in. Thus, I was tenth in line. Yay! And stood in line for an hour and a half. Meh.
  • Two opening acts ended up meaning that Jenny didn’t actually start until almost midnight.
  • All that MADE NO DIFFERENCE. She’s totally incredible and has this ability to make the whole audience fall in love with her at sight. By the end, she probably could’ve told us to go jump in Silver Lake, and we would’ve been like, okay!
  • But she’s cool, so she didn’t do that.
  • She did mostly stuff from her new album (since, you know, that’s what she’s promoting), which comes out on the 23rd, but threw in a few of the best tracks off Rabbit Fur Coat. Good mix.
  • Usually when bands do songs I don’t know, I get a little lost and my attention wanders. That even happened with Rilo Kiley the first time in Austin. Not here. She had me every second.
  • Possibly that’s because I was at the edge of the stage, five feet from her, and she’s very good at making eye contact with the audience. I swear she winked at me once.
  • The new songs sound great – several a lot harder than Rabbit Fur Coat (“Messiah,” “Jack Killed Mom”), but others are spare and vulnerable. I love Rabbit Fur Coat, but the new one has a lot more varied sound. In a good way.
  • The album’s not out until the 23rd, but the whole thing is streaming at Jenny’s MySpace page. Give it a listen.
  • Some people were born to do certain things. Jenny’s definitely found her thing. Not only is she a fantastic singer/musician and a brilliant songwriter, but she clearly loves it. She was enjoying the music, the other musicians, the audience, performing, everything about it.
  • Probably enjoying an extra lot because it was the first night of the tour with brand new songs in a hometown venue. The Rilo Kiley show I saw in LA was outstanding, but you could tell the band was getting a little tired – last stop on a tour promoting a two-year-old album. She was sparkling tonight.
  • So yeah, if you get the chance to see her on her upcoming tour (which is detailed on her MySpace), I recommend it highly.