Concert Review: Mirah/Tender Forever

Photo by Louisa Bradford
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Yay! I finally got to see Mirah on Tuesday. The band Tender Forever opened (which is really just one person) and I was so pleasantly surprised by them! Tender Forever is Melanie Valera from France, and she has a really cool electronic/pop sound paired with strong, earnest vocals. She is signed to K Records in Seattle, which is the same label as Mirah. She has been compared to The Blow a lot, and I can definitely see the resemblance, but I think Tender Forever has a rawer, more emotionally honest quality to her music.
Here is a photo of Tender Forever:

Doesn't she just look so French?

TF was so, SO hilarious and her French accent made the things she was saying sound even funnier. She did an adorable cover of Justin Timberlake's "My Love" and told funny stories about her adventures in America. She was visibly nervous, but she put on a great show anyway. One highlight was when she expressed her love for Beyonce, dedicated the next song to her, then played it to a slide show of (photoshopped) photos of her and Beyonce.
She just had a really original, inventive quality to her music that I loved. She played the drums with a wii remote, danced around in a cape, joked that she was allowed to be a snob because she was French, and played a mean ukulele!
By the end of her set, Tender Forever had completely won over the crowd. We were laughing, cheering, screaming, and hanging on her every word! It was so great to see her relax and bask in the attention instead of being nervous and quiet like she was in the beginning. I got to meet her after the show and she was so nice! I really hope she comes again.

A couple (crappy) photos I took:

Note the Wii Remote dangling off her keyboard!

Note the cape.

Then, Mirah came on! She was just so cute. Her voice reminds me of.. cinammon sugar. So delicate and soft and beautiful. It sounded even better live! I also liked how comfortable she was on stage. She was perfectly cool, calm, and collected. Cool as a cucumber you might say.
Mirah had an extremely fun, talented band. She had a violinist, a drummer, a bassist, and a clarinet/keyboard player, while she handled vocals and guitar. The rest of the band backed her up on some songs with "oohs" and "ahhs" but they wisely let her voice shine.
Some highlights of her set included "Light the Match", during which Mirah would march in place all cutely, "The Forest", which gave the band a chance to really jam, and "The Garden", which was the final song. During The Garden, Tender Forever came on stage to play the bongos, and everyone just had a LOT of fun playing it. The keyboardist was jumping up and down while he played, the drummer had a nice drum solo, and Mirah was grinning the whole time. The audience loved it as well haha.
Overall, it was one of the best concerts I've been to in a long time. I even got a picture with Mirah!
-Mirah's Myspace
-Buy their stuff on Amazon!