Dia Frampton – Live @ Stage-It Concert (Wednesday, August 28, 2013)

This week, Dia Frampton hosted an online concert on stageit.com, showcasing some of her new songs and old. I have to say, it’s been a while since Dia’s been able to tour and perform as she’s been writing extensively and covering various songs in her infamous “Cover Mondays” web-series for the past year, that seeing her perform again definitely brought me back to what brought me in the first place.

Luckily, with all the “Meg & Dia-boardie” love, I was granted access to the concert at 6pm (which ran until minutes before 7pm), and she was backed by some of the band we’ve seen in her Cover Mondays project.

First off, can we all thank manager Mike for egging on Dia to playing some very very old songs–some she’s even written a decade ago–paying tribute to her decade+ music and songwriting career.

When someone asked in the chat dialogue, “Why are you playing such sad songs?” Dia had replied, “I enjoy being sad because it kind of makes me happy.”

“I enjoy being sad because it kind of makes me happy.” – @DiaFramps I get you–I always thrive off my suffering! XO ❤

— Rachel Ann Cauilan (@rachelannc) August 29, 2013

I totally got what she meant (as well as Jade who replied to me). If you know me well enough, I always say that I thrive off of my suffering–it just kind of makes life more real, you know?

But, anyway, silly banter in a small, intimate setting is what I’ve been kind of missing from Dia. I fondly remember those days back in 2007 and 2009 where her and her sister Meg in the band Meg & Dia would perform in these intimate kind of settings and just play off their banter. It was that connection that I’ve been missing, as her recent Voice success and touring from then on kind of, detracted away from the intimacy and old MaD-lovers kind of missed that.

Dia even reminded listeners of her yodeling-background, as we got a little hint (for what seems like the first time ever) of her yodeling. She thought back to her at 14 winning a Utah yodeling competition and sang that song again. It was beautiful and–mind you–definitely ties her technique and voicing together as it just made sense where she got her singing chops from. That amount of depth and breath control in her voice that we’ve come to love listening to her music over the years? It started from that.

Her performance that night definitely brought viewers back, as she let her band go for a moment and sat behind a keyboard, playing “Yellow Butterfly” (mind you, a song that was written what seems like 10 years ago and hasn’t been performed or heard since), and an old demo of “One Sail” from Meg & Dia’s 2009 album Here, Here and Here. It was definitely nostalgic, and Dia got a little emotional at that moment, realizing that some of us know music she’s written 10 years ago and it’s crazy to see how far she’s come along, and how much growth has happened in the past decade.

The concert left me feeling a little taken aback and nostalgic. It brought me peace. For a long time now, I’ve kind of forgotten how long I’ve been listening to her and her sister’s music, and how big an impact it’s had on my upbringing. They were mainly the reason I decide to pick up the guitar and songwriting, and led me to have faith in the kind of person I was. And, it’s all for the books now…

Just in case you missed it, a lovely boardie was able to record her Stage-It performance, if you would like to view it. I didn’t mention all of her song material here–just the ones that really stuck out to me.

It’s been a while Dia, but glad to know that somehow you can bring back those old familiar feelings!

Brava.