This was quite possibly the worst concert I have ever been to and I left after less than an hour. Let me explain why -
1. Location. Paradise Rock Club. Been there a bunch of times, probably my favourite Boston live music venue. Small enough to get close to the stage, but large enough to hang out with a about a thousand of your closest friends. It is a general admission venue, all standing, split on two levels. Except for this concert there were seats. Okay, we get there about 8:30, for a show listed to start at 8 and all the centre-stage seats are taken (understandably) so are the stage-right seats, but there are some seats still open stage-left.
2. Opening Band - there wasn't one. The audience sat in silence until after 9 when Lisa and Joe came on.
3. View - appalling. Who designs their set so that the drummer is further forward than the headliner? All I, and everyone else stage-left, could see was the drummer and the drumset. If you imagine an arc curving from stage-left to the back of the stage to stage-right, the drummer was at the beginning of the arc, Lisa and Joe at the middle of the arc (at the back of the stage) and the guitarist stage-right at the end of the arc. Yes, Lisa and Joe were at the back of the stage, view obstructed by the drumset and what made it worse was she sat down for a large part of the show, making her even more difficult to see. After a couple of numbers I gave up and tried to find a better vantage spot.
4. Acoustics - this is a rock club. It isn't designed for a quiet acoustic set. Berklee Performance Centre or MFA would have been better suited for this type of show. It was so quiet that from stage-right all I could hear was the traffic from the road or the clinking of glasses from the bar. When people started to complain, Lisa said she couldn't make it any louder.
I love this venue and I love the music of Lisa Hannigan, but between the stage set-up, the seating and the acoustics, it was a disaster.