Natalie Merchant Tickets

She played all music from her first album first, followed by a second act of songs that many know and love. She forgot words on a couple of the songs; she had to ask the band to speed up tempo multiple times, and on one song she stopped singing altogether and then started another song. It seemed like a band practice.

Her new album is great. She really is a great musician/performer, a must see act!

One of the best concerts I have ever attended! It is also one of the most unusual.concerts I have ever attended. Natalie Merchant reaches new heights as a performer by trying to help her audience grow too. The first half of the concert is totally amazing and distinctive....taking classic children's poems, teaching us about their author's lives, and then setting them to amazing music. Audiences need to put away their expectations about how "concerts should be" and just be swept away by the magic. In the second half of the concert, she gives the audience the favorite songs they love, but in exquisite new arrangements, with incredible backup by performers on guitar, clarinet, cello, violin and bass.

The best artist I ever seen! She is so great and also very funny. I loved the concert!

Natalie played a fabulous show! She is far better in person than I even imagined. There were two shows in one--one from her latest CD and then an extended encore with some of her older songs. Unforgettable!

The Natalie Merchant show was amazing. It's been a while since I've seen a great group of musicians with a very theatrical singer put on a great show like this! The fact that they played so long is really telling as to how thankful they are to their fans. The stories were great, the music was awesome, and the vibe of the show was superb!

Natalie Merchant exudes genuine human growth relevant in her life experience that is evident in her choice of artistic talent, personal expression and her lovely voice. Throughout her concert, there is a warm sense of give and take with her audience yet she maintains an assertiveness that resonates the confidence and clarity she has in herself. I think Leave Your Sleep was a wonderful contribution to our literary world and a gift to her audience. The beauty of respecting the poets life and its presentation gave a memorable experience. The second half of the performance were familiar favorites which were enjoyable and engaging. The closing of the performance with Kind and Generous was perfect.

I confess I wanted to hear “Candy everybody wants”, “These are days” and “Thank you” more than The Janitor’s Boy… Maybe this should have been better advertised (as in "Natalie will present a conceptual concert based 99% on material from her new record"). But other than the natural awkwardness you feel when listening to two hours of new material, her voice is as always unbelievable and her band is excellent. All in all, a great concert, I think, although even Natalie knows that on the encore (where she played a couple songs from her previous phases), people were way more enthusiastic, as expected…

The night started with a collection from her latest album, which was beautiful. She really opened up and showed her sense of humor through some serious work. She was very engaged with the audience and seemed to grow more relaxed as the performance went on. She literally let her hair down a few songs into the set and really started to enjoy herself. After more than an hour of her new work she came back for what everyone thought would be a brief encore. Instead she played nearly another hour of some of her big hits, including 10,000 Maniacs "Eat for Two" before ending the night with the audience on its feet singing along with her to "Kind and Generous."

Great show. She has one of the best voices in the business. New album done in it's entirety, started slow, but finsihed strong. Ist encore most if her old hits, really rocked and engaged the audience. 2nd encore was excellent and great finishing songs. One of the better concert experiences this year!

Natalie Merchant put on a stunning show at the Chicago Theatre last night. She played 24 songs for more than 2 1/2 hours!! The first 15 were from her brilliant Leave Your Sleep album which is a must own for any music fan. Nothing like it has ever been recorded and the live versions were faithful and unique at the same time.

Natalie established herself as a force from her original band, 10,000 Maniacs. In her performance Thursday night at the Chicago Theatre, however, Natalie merely promoted her new album without much acknowledgment to her original band's musical contribution to her development as an artist. For the first 60-75 minutes of her show, Natalie and her band performed entirely new musical performances without a single song from 10,000 Maniacs or from her early solo work. The "second set," which lasted 45-60 minutes, was devoted to her older material. She apparently did an encore after her second set, but by that time folks had enough and left. [It was a "school night."] I acknowledge her creativity of presenting a slide-show narrative explaining the sources of lyrics and inspiration for her new material (based on 18th-20th century poetry). And inviting a second-grader on stage to recite some poetry off the screen was cute. Most likely this invitation stems from the most profound transformation that Natalie has experienced becoming a mother in the past 7-8 years. Yet most folks who came out to see Natalie perform are more familiar with her raw, passionate, early solo work and her role in 10,000 Maniacs. The organization of her show put off many of her most ardent fans. If I could recommend one thing Natalie do is that she reorganize her show to include a more traditional presentation of her music catalog, sampling perhaps 60% recent material (i.e., her new album) with 40% older material over the coarse of a 90-100 minute set. Then she could rip it up with a raging 20-30" encore encompassing a mix of her transitional period between 10,000 Maniacs and her break-out solo work.

Natalie always gives a wonderful performance, and last night's show was no exception. In addition to a full set of beautiful new songs-- others' poetry set to her own music-- Natalie and her band gave two extensive encores. She is truly a joy to see and hear live.

Being a 10,000 Maniacs fan but never having seen them in concert, I was hoping for a positve experience when attending the Natalie Merchant concert at the Chicago Theatre last night. Wow, we were pleasantly surprised. The concart started around 8:15, no warm up which was great. Natalie sang songs she had composed from children's poetry from the early 20th century and talked about many of the writers and even included pictures of the various writers. After she completed that segment she came back on stage for one hell of an encore and was still singing at 10:20! Great show for $40 per!! Fantastic voice and fantastic arrangements with her band.

Having heard Natalie perform in the past, I know how brilliant her voice can be in concert, but this Chicago 2010 concert was significantly different. She seemed to be reluctant to sing - much of what she did was talk on stage - I thought perhaps she had injured herself and was unable to sing, but later I found brief moments when she SANG, and sang beatifully!!! It seems like she almost wants to separate herself from her voice, to say I am not just a great voice! And I agree, she is not just a voice, she has created wonderful compositions, but I feel she can also share her wonderful voice too. Instead she seemed to not share her dear gift, instead she seemed silly, and now being a father of two, I wonder if motherhood has simply changed her? I have observed that parenting can make adults somewhat child-like at times, and her concert seemed to be sort of a tribute to childhood. Perhaps she now (with her own children) has everything she ever wanted in life and is content - perhaps no fire inside to sing with the passion and brilliance how she did in the past. I have immense respect for her and think it is important to evolve personally and professionally, but for the audience, and myself, I did not find her performance entertaining - I kept waiting for her to sing, but...

Fantastic Concert. Natalie was engaging, her voice flawless and message genuine. 3 encores was a special treat filled with some of her previous solo work plus a bonus 10,000 Manias song.

Natalie was nothing short of amazing. She showcased her new album, but did several oldersongs as what I would call a second set.

The only reason I do not rate this 5 stars is due to my seating location. I was in the back row near the door and people kept coming in and out of the concert during theentire event. This was very distracting. Concert halls should lock the doors when the show is on. People are so rude. I have seen Natalie twice before, ten and twelve years ago, and she is still an amazing artitst. She is a fabulous performer and puts her heart and soul into her performance. I had not heard her newest album and was amazed at the depth of research she placed into it. However, knowing her creation has come from raising her daughter, I can totally understand the passion. I have six year old daughter and can relate.

The show was excellent . She is truely a muscian and her band member were phenomanal. I can remeber the last time a saw someone perform with a cello, a bass, and a brass section. I would put her more on the level of a classical performer but with a fun whimsy twist. She was very interactive with the audience and seem to enjoy performing for us. She was a joy to watch.

My love for Natalie Merchant goes all the way back to the beginning with 10,000 Maniacs. I've been on board for a LONG time, so when Ticketmaster sent me a pre-concert notice, I made sure I was in front of my computer the minute tickets went on sale. After months of anticipation, I was even more thrilled when Natalie walked out on stage without a warm-up act. This was going to be awesome! Except, it wasn't. Natalie took us by the hand an awkwardly navigated us thru 15 songs from her new album, which was based on some very obscure children's poetry. Mind you, the songs were exquisite; complete with the vocals and instrumentations we've come to love. However, the ham-handed execution made these 90 minutes almost painful to endure. As she began the "final" song, she informed the audience this would be the "last song of the evening", and the band took bows and exited the stage. A reasonable number of fans exited the event, as well. To nobody's surprise, Natalie came back out for an encore, which wasn't an encore at all. It was a "second set without an intermission". It was her "how do we please everyone" set. Even though we got many of Natalie's biggest hits, including a very pleasing version of one of my all-time favorites (Cowboy Romance), the overall execution was still awkward. On a number of occasions, Natalie made references to "pleasing" the audience; also asking "what more could you all want". It was almost like she felt she "had to" play a few of the songs the audience came to see. Go figure!?!? Musically, this is the Natalie Merchant I wanted to see, make no mistake. But the set was so awkwardly executed, it made the music nearly impossible to enjoy. If Natalie would have opened with a few favorites to get everyone into the music, then followed by taking a minute to explain the basis of her new material (injecting those 15 songs into the 2 1/2 hour show), my opinion may have been very different. Instead, the long and meaningless biographies of some very obscure poets completely spoiled it for me. I just never connected with the artist, so by the time a few of the familiar pieces were being performed (especially since Natalie's attitude was that she needed to "please" the audience), I honestly shared Natalie's disdain for them. By the time of the final song, 20 percent of the audience had gone home. I'm glad I stayed to hear Cowboy Romance, but even that piece, complete with an interruption by a very inconsiderate fan, was pretty hard to enjoy.