The week in live music
By Jessica Hopper | Special to the Chicago Tribune
August 8, 2008
FRIDAY
After cresting early on, Vanessa Carlton, who was part of the young-songstresses-with-pianos-and-long-hair trend that dominated 2001-03's airwaves, has struggled to regain an audience. Her debut went platinum, and despite a long tour opening for
Stevie Nicks, her record sales plummeted and she was dropped from her label. She's young but not terribly hip; she is an unapologetic soft-rock artist. Her work is melodramatic, romantic, triumphant and familiar—listening to her latest, 2007's comeback "Heroes and Thieves" (The Inc.), one wonders why she is not as popular as Celine Dion. There is not another current pop artist who is as extreme in their palatability. She's the puerile Dan Fogelberg of her generation! Her new label's attempts to sell her with a sexed-up image border on farcical. In her latest video, she appears in a sexy garter belt and is caressed by a set of mystery-man hands. It doesn't jibe with her music and is all the more creepy given that, at 27, Carlton still looks like a sophomore in high school.
7 p.m. at House of Blues, 329 N. Dearborn St. $14-$16 (all-ages); Ticketmaster 312-559-1212
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