Rachael Yamagata @ The Varsity

The Varsity Theater in Dinkytown continues to book quality shows and did so again last night as they brought back Rachael Yamagata. The first time I was lucky enough to see Rachel perform was of course at SXSW back in 2003 at La Zona Rosa. She performed five songs and was amazing! She cried her way through the whole set, although I would've never known it except I was about 10 feet away and could see it. No tears last night and did lend this piece of advice, "If he's holding a guitar...Darlin' run away. It's intoxicating for about 20 minutes and then it's just horrible." A local treat was when Rachael was joined on stage by Dan Wilson for 3 songs. She is a true singer-songwriter and a gut wrenching one at that. Some people get depressed when they listen to "sad" music or "break-up songs"...and some of us take a sort of comfort in it and would label it as gut-wrenching or compelling instead. I would encourage everyone to take a listen...if you are a Ray LaMontagne fan, they do a duet together on her latest album...rightfully titled, "Duet"...it's pretty amazing.

For those of you who live in Portland...she'll be at the Doug Fir March 30th and those of you in LA, she'll be playing the Troubadour April 4th.