Saw Brandi Carlile at Red Rocks last night, and it was one of the best shows I've ever seen. Like, so good I'd go back tonight if she was playing again. Very Springsteenish, both in terms of how polished her show is, as well as how she just opens her heart and lets it all out.
But the thing that's really stuck in my head was her first opener, a young girl named Allison Ponthier. Her music dealt heavily with gay themes, and then she announced that she was going to do one more song. She said she grew up in Texas (Allen), and that it was tough to be gay there, but that she still loved her hometown, but she wished it loved her back, so she wrote a song about it. And then she played this song that hasn't been released yet called, "Everywhere isn't Texas." Here's a couple of snippets:
And when she finished, she just said, "Thank you, performing here has been a dream of mine," pulled out her phone, turned around and took a selfie with the crowd behind her, and walked off the stage. And I sat there trying not to cry because I was gutted like a big old trout.