Jason Singer is Michigander. Singer the singer takes a gander out toward the half-full Pilsen concert hall. It is more than a gander though, it is a gaze. He is doing what he loves.
Michigander’s steady acoustic singer-songwriter approach that is heard in his records was substituted for a much louder and more electric live sound. Maybe he wants to give fans a more exciting experience. That’s not the sense I got though. I believed it when he said he would still play if nobody showed up. So, in a half-full hall that is small to begin with, he played his heart out. This is why the come up, which has been long, has not been a problem for Singer.
Singer hit a nostalgic groove in the middle of the show. His horn supported first single, “Nineties,” was followed by “East Chicago, IN,” which was a necessary love song considering the setting. “Reds” came next, and emphasized a crescendo of tempo and volume both within the song and as the set went on. A few songs before the closer, the band stressed their ability to shed the acoustic sound, by playing The White Stripes’ “Seven Nation Army.”
After releasing his first single in 2016, and a series of EP’s since then, he has finally gotten to the point of a full LP, which will come out in the new year. “Giving Up” is the title track to the album, and was the final song of the night. An old-fashioned, no encore night further cemented that what he is doing is for himself.