Allen Stone Live Review

3/5/12 @ Lincoln Hall

I first saw funk/soul singer Allen Stone opening for Jack's Mannequin at the House of Blues in January. I'd never heard of him and a friend recommended that I not miss him as the opener for Jacks. Trusting his opinion, I made it on time.

At first glance, he has a very ecentric style. long curly blond hair, borderline coke bottle glasses and a fedora and a gap tooth smile. I wasn't quite sure what to expect. I was pleasantly surprised, he was very crowd pleasing and charasmatic. Everyone was snapping, & clapping along, he really charmed the whole room, with his stage presence and pure joy and love for the art of soul music. He really appreciated the heart and soul that represented Chicago and House of Blues and wanted to do it well. His songs and arrangments would appeal to both young and older audiences, and it appeared they were already familar with him shouting ''play Unaware''

I found out later Unaware is an acoustic slow jam very different from the jazzy funk foot tapping beats of the songs he played in his set. I left with a rare feeling that I didn't want the set to end and for an opener that's very rare. and as an opener he accomplised the goal of getting the crowd ''ready'' and pumped to see the

I had to see this man again by himself when he had an entire set to play with.

For the first time in my music loving ticket buying world I won tickets to a sold out show via Facebook/Lincoln Hall.

It was a Monday night Allen Stone was nothing short of perfection, he did a cover of Marcy Playground's Sex & Candy that blew me away. Why hadn't someone made a soulful acoustic arrangment before? for the more funky songs you could tell the band were a tight knit group. During his acoustic sets he gave short charming aneodotes and told us stories about his upbringing and what he learned while going to school and traveling.

Allen even did a YouTube video series of playing in his mother's living room. A minister's son from Seattle, he comes from very humble beginnings but blessed with a unmeasurable amount of range and natural raw talent. Every vocal run and choice comes from the moment and isn't forced or planned. After the end of the set he waited at the merch table and greeted every single fan and took pictures and talked with everybody and it was a sold out show.  He's simply amazing.