I went to Warehouse Live Friday night for yet another concert. This one was very very small. The show was on the small stage with the rest of the warehouse closed off. The merch table was planted in the small room as well and we were pushed through the back entrance by the bathrooms. Anyway, there were two opening acts, which were not advertised. The first one, Josh Hoge, was a pretty funny guy and he had a great set of pipes. His album came out today, September 9, 2008. If you click on his name it will route you to his website and the song “Stay Away” will play for you. He sang this song live. It was good live. The album version…umm…I dunno. He said he’s done some work with Nick Carter and, dare I say, it sounds like a short lived boy band hit. He did a Bill Withers cover of “Ain’t No Sunshine” that I thought was great. Josh Hoge is one for a lot of vocal gymnastics but I think it works well for him.

Next to the stage was the Matt White Band. Matt White seems like a pretty cool guy, for a Dylan of 90210 look-a-like. He grew up in Houston and the band now lives in Austin. I think Matt White needs to ditch his band. He seems like a Ferras to me. Well, I take that back. Markus the drummer from Germany should stay. Especially if he wears fitted Gap jeans. I guess the only band member I had a problem with was Lee the bass player. And really the only thing that bothered me about Lee was the way he curled his lips and mouthed the lyrics. It was like watching John Mayer. Anyway, enough of my snide observations. They have an album called Best Days. This song, “Love,” is off that album.

“Love” is featured in a commercial for McDonalds and a new advertisement for the Gap. I couldn’t find the Gap ad but here’s the McDonald’s commercial. Also, make sure you tune into Jay Leno on September 19th to see the guys perform.

Ok, let’s talk about Kate. She came out wearing a blue sleeved baseball T and a hat over her eyes like Ingrid Michaelson. She started with “I Get It” and then moved on to “Chicago.” She never had much to say between songs except “Thank you Houston.” During “Top of the World” I noticed that her guitar player looks like Jon from Switchfoot. At least his haircut does. Then I thought I saw him mouth to her “I love you.” Are you dating your guitar player Kate? They both have rings on that special finger. Then again, she has one on every finger to go with her plethora of bracelets. She did a band introduction and they played a funky little “Billie Jean” teaser and I came to the conclusion that I LOVE her band. And Quinn, the lucky man who sells her merchandise and switches out her guitars.

She played her new single featured on the Team USA soundtrack to the 2008 Olympics called “Lift Me Up.” This song really showcased her AMAZING vocal capability. And she’s only 20. My thought went from “Yeah, she’s really good” to “YEAH, SHE’S GOOD!”

She also did a cover of “You Oughta Know” by Alanis Morissette. She informed us that the song was written about Dave Coulier of Full House and that she couldn’t possibly emulate how “pissed off” Alanis was. So, Kate just does her own spin-off version of it.

She finished her set and walked off stage and even though they never do encores at Warehouse Live I knew there had to be one because, for all the little One Tree Hill fans, she did not do the one song everyone knows and loves, “Kindly Unspoken.” I also knew that there was a good chance she would do a cover of Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah” and she hadn’t done that yet either. So, she came back onstage and first did “Hallelujah.” The surprise was that she brought Amy Kuney on stage to duet with her. If you go back to my May 23, 2008 post you can hear Amy’s song “All Downhill from Here” off her debut album. She, then, officially ended with “Only Fooling Myself.” All in all, I can’t explain to you how great I think her voice is. The best way I can tell you is by saying that, when I tried to think about who else I have seen live that sang as well as she did, Martina McBride came to mind.

1. I Get It
2. Chicago
3. Top of the World
4. Don’t Look Away
5. I Won’t Disagree
6. Devil in Me
7. Wish You Were
8. No Good
9. Lift Me Up (2008 Team USA Olympic Soundtrack)
10. You Oughta Know (Alanis Morrissette cover)
11. One Way or Another

Encore

1. Hallelujah (Leonard Cohen cover)
2. Kindly Unspoken
3. Only Fooling Myself