due to my total inability to get a focused shot inside of a club, this photo of Bitter:Sweet’s Shanna Halligan brought to you by OtterFreak [flickr]

Salem, Oregon’s Courtney Jones [#] took the stage prior to Bitter:Sweet. Alone with only a keyboard, Jones gamely sang to a mostly empty Chop Suey. Those in attendance were treated to a fine performance. A singer/songwriter (who prefers her music described as alternative pop), the lovely Jones draws comparisons to Sarah McLachlan and Norah Jones. Her lyrics were intensely personal; searching even. It was a strangely captivating performance. Strange because of the entirely empty floor in front of her; captivating because of Jones’ ability to draw listeners into her music. I’ve never particularly liked singer/songwriters. I can’t put into words exactly why - it’s just always been that way for me. That said, I sincerely enjoyed Jones’ performance. I have a feeling you’ll be hearing quite a bit more from her in the coming years. Maybe sooner.

[Bitter:Sweet after the jump.]

After Jones, Chop Suey went from three-quarters empty to packed in the space of about ten minutes. Even though it may seem like you’re the only one who knows of them, Bitter:Sweet [m-s] is no secret. At least, not since one of their songs was featured on Grey’s Anatomy or their album cover was on nearly every picture of the Microsoft Zune during its pre-release marketing blitz. Nor, to my chagrin, played as background music while I shopped for a bathroom rug at the Northgate Target a few months ago. Bitter:Sweet has arrived as much as a lounge-ish/bassa nova-ish/electronic/trip-hop group with a terribly talented Indian-American bassist and bombshell redhead singer can arrive.

They took the stage to as diverse a population of humans that I daresay has ever gathered for a Seattle show. There were gay lovers, lesbian lovers, hetero lovers, frat boys who love wearing backwards Hurley baseball caps (and the sorority girls who love them), East Indian telephone tech support specialists, drop-dead gorgeous Asian beauties (and the guys who love them), Inuit tribespersons, Chicano gangsters, a few obviously well paid escorts, middle-aged suburban Street of Dreamers, and [probably] your Cougar [mb] of a mom. I think I even spotted Eddie Vedder (unverified).

With all that diversity (in Seattle, no less) you might expect some tension in the air. It never got that far, though, because singer Shanna Halligan is apparently tension’s kryptonite. Her charming stage presence captivated the audience and dissolved away all worries. Not one person in attendance gave less than joyous, rapt attention to the petite Halligan as she slinked sexily around the stage enjoying every second of the audience’s love and reciprocating it by flirting openly in return. If I had to guess I’d say she made eye contact with everybody in attendance at least twice (myself included). And they ate it up - some dancing with abandon and all cheering wildly at the end of every song. At a break between songs, Halligan mentioned that it was hot inside Chop Suey. “IT’S YOU!!” yelled several voices from the audience. The love fest was so overt that Shanna twice stepped away from the microphone during the set to wipe away tears. She seemed genuinely surprised by the outpouring from the audience.

Halligan’s cult of personality aside, the music itself was noteworthy. After a slight correction to the bass level after the first two songs, Bitter:Sweet’s set was clean and tight. Typically, the aggressive production values of trip-hop/lo-fi music are difficult to duplicate live but Bitter:Sweet managed flawlessly. The 5-piece band proved competent and versatile and Shanna’s vocals were as sultry as ever as they moved from their flowing, hypnotic sound into a short rendition of Prince’s “Erotic City” (nearly causing the crowd to lose its collective mind) and back again. The other songs, accounting for all from “The Mating Game” CD (and a new song from a forthcoming release), were equally well received. They ended their set to raucous approval from an audience desperate for more. Encores are often contrived and obligatory, but in this case, it was well warranted.

After the show, Shanna and bassist Kiran Shahani joined fans in a still one-third full Chop Suey to sign autographs and mingle. On my way out, I overheard a male fan gush to Shanna, “Your giggle could crumble empires.” She put her arm around him and whispered something inaudible into his ear. Then she giggled as surely as his empire crumbled away.