Christina Perri at the Mann Center for the Performing Arts – July 11, 2015. Photo copyright 2015 Jim Rinaldi.
Christina Perri & Colbie Caillat – The Mann Center for the Performing Arts – Philadelphia, Pennsylvania – July 11, 2015
The name of the tour is “Girls Night Out… and the Boys Can Come, Too!” and that pretty much sums up the recent dual tour appearance by Colbie Caillat and Christina Perri. The estrogen level may have been a touch high in the Mann for this summer night, but that doesn’t mean it wasn’t a terrifically enjoyable show. Sort of like a mini-Lilith Fair for a new millennium, the show was not just a girl-power treatise. It was also a good example of the complexity of intriguing female artists, ones who have some similarities and many more differences, even if both are considered mellow love music specialists.
One girl who didn’t come too was opening buzz act Rachel Platten. The Taylor Swift-approved singer, just now taking off with her hit “Fight Song” after years in the music biz clubs and trenches, is the official opening act for the tour. However, she had to miss this one single stop on the tour because of a previous commitment to a Minnesota music festival. It was a bit of a disappointment to miss her – I’ve been a fan since catching her in a small New York club in 2008 – but a Philadelphia group called Vita & the Woolf gave a pleasant, unflashy opening set.
Colbie Caillat at the Mann Center for the Performing Arts – July 11, 2015. Photo copyright 2015 Jim Rinaldi.
Then Colbie Caillat brought her gorgeous Cali acoustic surf sound to the house. Her playlist was a sweet and sultry mix of hits and album tracks. From the upbeat strummed bliss of “Fallin’ For You” to the more desolate meditation on love and loss “I Never Told You,” Caillat was in fine voice and had the crowd in her hand. She sat at the front of the stage to share the lesser known aching devotional “In Love Again,” then later showed her more ecstatic self in the dazzlingly optimistic “Brighter Than the Sun.”
Her more sultry side came out with the recent Babyface collaboration “Try” and the surprisingly complex vocal dynamics of “Hold On.” She also did duets with videos of Jason Mraz in the sweet love devotional “Lucky” and rapper Common in the more uncommon (at least for her) hip-hop jam “Favorite Song.”
Mann Center for the Performing Arts – July 11, 2015. Photo copyright 2015 Jim Rinaldi.
As her set wound down, she reminisced on writing her first huge hit, the charming look at love called “Bubbly” – though she readily admitted that at the time she recorded the song she had never actually experienced that emotion. The song still, seven years later, exudes the perky innocence that makes Caillat’s music so lovable.
Local girl Perri got the closing set in her hometown. Perri grew up in the Philly suburb of Bensalem and was obviously thrilled to be playing at the Mann, where she had seen shows as she grew up. She joked that she had about 300 family members in the crowded shed, and at one point asked the crowd if anyone would run out to a local Wawa (food market) to get her a meatball sub and flavored coffee.
Christina Perri at the Mann Center for the Performing Arts – July 11, 2015. Photo copyright 2015 Jim Rinaldi.
While she was having a great time, Perri’s musical style is significantly darker – if no less beautiful – than Caillat’s. In fact, she at one point good naturedly warned the crowd that the song “Burning Gold” was going to be abnormally upbeat for her. However, from the time she entered with “Shot Me In the Heart,” Perri had her hometown fans in her pocket. From the lovely devotional “Arms” to the arrestingly delicate emoting of “The Words,” Perri was in the zone. Treading the boards – even occasionally taking a catwalk into the front rows of fans – she exuded confidence that these were her people and she knew what they wanted.
The ballad-heavy setlist never waned, skirting from lesser-known but well received album tracks like “One Night” and “Tragedy” to the set-closing smash “Human.” Then, back for encore, Perri closed out with the morosely stunning one-two punch of her magnificent love ballads “Jar of Hearts” and “A Thousand Years.”
In theory, Christina Perri and Colbie Caillat seemed like a bit of an odd couple for a tour, but their music actually meshed stunningly.
Jay S. Jacobs
Copyright ©2015 PopEntertainment.com. All rights reserved. Posted: July 14, 2015.
Photos by Jim Rinaldi © 2015
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