
From American Idol hopeful to selling out headlining tours, Natalie Jane and her amazing voice ignited Durham, NC, into a screaming frenzy.
Motorco Music Hall in Durham, NC, is a simple 450-person venue on the outside edge of the Durham downtown. It has hosted virtually every style of artist imaginable, making it one of the most well-known venues in the area. Everyone in the area under the age of 21 wanted to be inside as social media phenom Natalie Jane brought her Sick To My Stomach Tour to town. Completely sold-out, Motorco Music Hall was the unquestioned epicenter for teen pop fandom in the Raleigh Triangle.
Supporting Natalie Jane was almost equally as well-known and loved Chandler Leighton. Recently announced to be on the Vans Warped Tour 30 Year Anniversary, Chandler Leighton with her minimalist band of a bass guitarist and a laptop/sequencer/drum pad musician, strutted onto the stage to loud screaming appreciation. Despite being older than most of her screaming fans, Chandler Leighton connected with the audience in a very open and loving manner. Complimenting one fan on her sparkly shirt and creating a memory that fans will remember for a very long time, Chandler sang into the lenses of phone cameras and held hands with front-row fans without hesitation.
Chandler’s single “Touchin’ Me” early in the set warranted an apology and acknowledgment that it was the last explicit song in her set, likely giving the many parents of high school girls in the audience a sigh of relief. Chandler’s exceptional voice blended in too perfectly with the backing tracks of songs such as “When You Say My Name,” making it difficult to appreciate her exceptional live performance separately from the expansive backing tracks and pre-recorded vocals she sang over. The band’s sound was perfectly produced, echoing the same sultry and smooth pop mix as their recordings. The chemistry between Chandler and bassist Celia on stage was powerful, locking eyes and dancing body-to-body at several points during the show. Chandler Leighton and her band delivered an amazing performance foreshadowing a very bright future ahead.
After an excessively long and seemingly unnecessary 40-minute intermission that served as a deafening sing-along session to Taylor Swift and Demi Lovato hits, Natalie Jane bounded onto the stage to a wall of piercingly loud screaming and hundreds of glowing cell phones capturing the first moments of her arrival. At a young 20 years of age, Natalie Jane has a voice most vocalists can only dream of. Strong, powerful, beautifully smooth, and with an amazing range Natalie Jane is an artist whose gift can be appreciated by any music critic, regardless of preferred musical genre.Performing on a very simple stage setup with street signs warning of heartache and catching the wrong boyfriend, Natalie Jane was joined by a lone drummer tucked into the far back corner who performed with an impassioned fury on top of pre-recorded tracks providing the entirety of the music. Performing songs from her two releases, Where Am I? and Sick To My Stomach, Natalie Jane’s setlist included her cover of “Crazy” by Gnarls Barkley early in the set featuring her soaring and powerful vocal ability. The audience sang every word to songs such as “Tattoos” and hit “Mentally Cheating” while recording every moment with cell phones high in the air. Every movement, every smile, every word spoken by Natalie Jane was cause for screaming mayhem throughout her set, proving once again the magic that can be created when talent mixes with social media to produce a phenomenon.
Natalie Jane’s Sick To My Stomach Tour heads to Europe on March 1 and continues through March 19, ending in Vienna, Austria.NATALIE JANE
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