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| Haley Reinhart and her band |
I first noticed singing sensation
Haley Reinhart on
YouTube performing a New Orleans jazz version of
The White Stripes' Seven Nation Army. It was part of a music collective named
Postmodern Jukebox that transforms modern songs into vintage musical genres. The concept became so popular the artists involved started touring the world. Since the group has over 70 singers rotating in and out of the show, Reinhart was unfortunately not performing the two times I attended the tour. Thursday night I finally saw her headlining her own show supporting her 1960's inspired album
What's That Sound?
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| Haley Reinhart singing White Rabbit in bunny ears |
Haley Reinhart started performing at an early age singing in her parents' Illinois rock and roll cover band. When she was twenty-years-old, Reinhart got national attention by taking third place on season 10 of
American Idol. Three albums and several globetrotting tours later Reinhart built a devoted following. Thursday's crowd was a mixture of teenage girls and their parents,
Postmodern Jukebox fans wearing vintage clothing (the woman in front of me was wearing a fox stole), and middle age men making the devil horns hand gesture at the end of every song (I am still confused by this behavior). Her drummer
Ray Moore did triple duty by keeping the beat, singing, and announcing
Haley Reinhart to the stage. She came out wearing a 1960's retro ensemble singing the upbeat title song from her second album
Better. Reinhart followed with a number of cover songs from her latest album. Highlights include
Jefferson Airplane's White Rabbit (while wearing bunny ears)
, Blind Faith's Can't Find My Way Home, and
The Shirelle's Baby It's You. My favorite was
The Kinks' Sunny Afternoon that showcased Reinhart's
Betty Boop like jazz scatting.
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Haley Reinhart - all photos by
The Rock and Roll Princess |
She performed
Elvis Presley's Can't Help Falling in Love that was featured in a
Wrigley's Extra Gum commercial/film/love story (whatever you call it). She claimed to receive a lifetime supply of chewing gum for the gig. After performing her original funk song
My Cake allowing each band member to take a solo, Reinhart went backstage to prepare for the encore. She came back wearing white go-go boots and a flowing translucent flock looking like something
Cher in 1966 would wear. Reinhart put her boots to work by singing
Nancy Sinatra's These Boots are Made for Walking complete with Sinatra's famous dance moves. Next was her jazz version of
Radiohead's Creep from her
Postmodern Jukebox material. The hair on the back of my neck stood up after she hit some amazing glass shattering high notes. The show ended with
Let's Start (an original song from her latest album). The tune stayed in the 1960's vibe with lots of "
bay, ba ba ba bay" sung between versus. It made the audience feel like they were walking out of a television episode of
Love American Style.
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| Pross |
The opener started with a laptop playing electronic dance music to warm up the crowd. The DJ fine-tuned the sounds while the lights changed with the beats.
Pross A.K.A.
Matt Prosser from Denver, Colorado quickly took the stage to sing his style of pop music including the songs
Don't Be Mad and
Wristband. Pross stated he first performed at the
Bluebird Theater ten years ago when he was just fifteen-years-old.
See you at the next show. I'll be the one wearing bunny ears reminiscing about
Love American Style.
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