I went and saw Beth Orton tuesday night, and she was excellent. The crowd for the show was really weird. She has a very odd blend of styles, which brings in a really weird mix of audience.
She is known for her work with the Chemical Brothers and her first album was what drove her to be called a techno-folkie, so there were a lot of rave kids who wanted to listen to something you don’t need ecstasy for.
She’s English, so you had a number of anglophiles and random English people who have moved to Chicago.
She’s moved more into more standard folk on her last couple of albums, so you had both your middle-aged folk fans, your flannel-wearing folk fans, your semi-hip grandmas, and your token lesbian couple with insanely bad hair.
All in all it was a good concert, because she really makes some beautiful music. But it was one of the oddest crowds I’ve ever seen.