live @ Black Cat 7.22.2000
Ida is not really a let-it-all-hang-out Friday night party band. With their contemplative stylings and supernal harmony singing, the New York City band is more like a rainy Tuesday night band. Ida persevered through some standard let-it-all-hang-out chatter at the Black Cat Friday night and delivered a set that indicated the band has matured greatly, still delivering a quality performance on what might be considered an off-night for the group.
The core Ida trio---Karla Schickele, Daniel Littleton and Elizabeth Mitchell---remained seated for the majority of the set and though Littleton occasionally drew frenetic guitar feedback from his amplifier, the set was centered on soft compositions that rose to more resounding conclusions. Chief among those were the slacker ramble of “Shrug” and the lovely harmonies of “Maybelle”. Ida drew from their outstanding new album “Will You Find Me” as well as sprinkling in few new songs, which will perhaps be on a second new record they have indicated they may release later in the year.
It seemed that the band, who also played a free concert at the Now! music store on Saturday, never really caught fire for most of the one hour set, but seemed to shake free by delivering a blistering closing swipe at Neil Young’s “Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere” and then returning for a delicate encore of “Don’t Get Sad On Me”. The final songs were proof that Ida has indeed become a first-rank ensemble, capable of producing brilliance on an evening when they seemed destined for indifference.
Washington Post, July 2000
