In Concert: Laura Stevenson & The Cans

As I mentioned, we went to the Maps & Atlases show last Friday. There were two opening bands, and since no show ever starts on time, even though we got there a half-hour after the posted start, we still stood around for a while until the first band started.

But they were worth the wait! If you like Regina Spektor, I think that you would enjoy Laura Stevenson and the Cans. She has a beautiful voice and the lyrics (what I could make out at a live concert anyway) seemed thought-provoking.

She also grabbed my attention by issuing a challenge to the audience. From the beginning, Stevenson joked about many more songs to come, and all with titles that she would be sure to inform us about. However, only a few songs in, she got to a song without a title, which they had been calling "Cool New Song" for some time. She told the audience that, if anyone had a suggestion, they were welcome to come up to her after the show.

So, of course, I took the challenge personally. One lyric that stuck out to me was about "breaks your heart harder than I could" (or something similar), plus parts of the song were very mellow and others were much more rocking. I wasn't brave enough to approach her at the show, but I emailed later and suggested the name "Harder" for the song.

I composed the email and sat for a few moments with my finger over the enter key to send. My heart was racing. Was I really going to do this? But then again, what did I have to lose?

So I did send the email, and got a response less than a day later:

hey! thank you so much for the suggestion!! i really like it! i'll
run it by the folks.

I was so excited! I emailed back and asked her to let me know if they did end up choosing that as the name, because it would make my day. I looked for the song on YouTube and found it as "Cool New Song" from March 2009, so she wasn't kidding about being unable to find a name!

Now, does she actually like the suggested title, or is she just trying to win another fan? Of course, I'll probably never know. But I do think it's an effective strategy, and even if she hated the idea I appreciate the gentle dismissal.

I didn't post that particular song above, because the sound quality didn't do Stevenson justice. Instead, I posted a song "Nervous Rex" that is already available online. Enjoy!