The Girls Night Out, Boys Can Come Too Tour | Colbie Caillat Live Review & Concert Photos | House of Blues Orlando | August 8, 2015

by Justin Fricke • August 28, 2015

Walking into the House of Blues on Saturday night, I was greeted with what seemed like thousands upon thousands of eager fans. The venue was at capacity for a sold out Colbie Caillat show. Seeing that the stage had been lowered, I was even more excited to be taking photos of Colbie.

House of Blues has a very high stage. I’m 6’2”, and the stage comes to my shoulders when it’s at full height. High stages make it much tougher for photographers to get quality pictures. With a lowered stage, I knew I was going to be able to get some fantastic shots of one of my favorite singer/songwriters.

Colbie took the stage with “Live It Up,” looking elegantly poised. I was expecting to see the beach style girl from Southern California show up barefoot. Instead, we all got to see a Colbie dressed a little more elegant, and I’m pretty sure no one was complaining.

As I’m snapping pictures during the first three songs: “Live It Up,” “Fallin’ For You,” and “If You Love Me Let Me Go,” I felt a lot was owed to to thank Colbie and her lighting designer. They made my and the other photographer’s job so much easier. She gave us everything we could want in a picture: singing with just the microphone, playing the guitar, and doing both of those things simultaneously. Colbie and Colbie’s lighting designer, if you’re reading this, I just wanted to say “Thank you on behalf of all photographers;” you come across for making our jobs so much easier.

After three songs, I moved from the photo pit to the second level, navigating my way through a maze of hungry fans. Eventually, I found a spot to snap a few photos of Colbie singing “Lucky” with Jason Mraz. You’re reading this right. Jason Mraz showed up at the show last night, sorta. Jason’s fedora wearing face was illuminated on the LED screen hanging behind Colbie and her band. When they started the song, it felt like Jason was standing right on stage with Colbie.

The next song was the heartbreaker for me. I’m sure a lot of other dudes in the room are fans of Colbie, but they probably don’t stalk every bit of her life. She introduced the next song, saying she wrote it for her now fiance’. “Did you she just say she’s engaged?” I thought to myself. She sure did (insert sad face). However, I did enjoy listening to her sing “I Do.” It’s cool to hear that she’s thinks it’s rad people are using the song to propose to the love of their life.

I moved downstairs to try and get a couple different shots, but there was so many people, it was impossible to find a good place to post up without blocking someone’s view. Looking back, I should’ve stayed put where I was upstairs. Luckily, I found a nice little corner spot where I could still see Colbie without blocking.

Right before she started her last song, Colbie told us that this was legitimately her last song. Much like what Aaron Gillespie at his show a couple weeks ago, she doesn’t do encores. Her philosphy is it’s a little odd that she leave the stage and then everyone beg her to come back and play a couple more songs. She did the whole encore thing the first time on the road, but again, awkward. Nevertheless, she closed the show out on a high note with “Brighter Than The Sun.” The crowd exploded when she left the stage.

Walking back to my car, I was thinking about how phenomenal her performance was. This was my first time seeing her live, and I have to say, I think I prefer hearing her music live to her album. Don’t get me wrong, I love listening to Colbie’s albums; I just appreciate how it doesn’t sound like she relies on the computer in the studio to fix things and genuine her live performance sounds.

Colbie Caillat Live Review & Concert Photos by Justin Fricke, edited by Matthew Weller.