Sweet songstress moves Plaza Theatre

The spotlight shined down on Jenny Lewis as she stood on stage at the Plaza Theatre on Monday.  

She stood there, alone with her guitar, and belted out an acoustic version of "Silver Lining" from the Rilo Kiley album, Under The Blacklight, to kick off the show.

Then she let loose and ripped off her jacket as she was joined by the rest of the members of her band.

They followed it up with "See Fernando" from Lewis' most recent album, Acid Tongue.

"It feels kind of like a school play up here," joked Lewis. The entire audience watched and listened to the singer with the attentiveness of a parent watching their child perform the lead in the school play. 

The proud mamas and papas of the audience watched fixated in between the Plaza Theatre's red curtains as the magnetic songstress gently guided them in the dark theater with her sweet yet powerful voice. 

With her red boots tapping and keeping time, Lewis and her bandmates, Johnathan Rice, Dave Scher, Barbara Gruska, Danielle Haim and Jonathan Wilson, played their song "Pretty Bird." 

"There's a mirror in heaven/ Pretty bird, pretty bird/ There's a window on earth," sang Lewis. 

"You feel Jenny's voice in your bones - it vibrates through your core from your limbs to your toes," said Kelli Villemon, a 30-year-old Orlando resident who saw Lewis play with her other band Rilo Kiley at The Social back in 2003. "Her lyrics are so powerful you recognize things as she sings. You discover how the tips of your fingers feel."

Although the Plaza Theatre is a seated venue without a dance floor, the crowd still stood up from their seats and screamed for the artist.

"I think the seating prevents the venue from being a bit more inviting, but I still like it because it's a part of Orlando history," Orlando resident Stefanie Snyder said.

The Plaza Theatre has been around since the early 1960's and was once used as a movie theater. 

Lewis took a seat at the piano for her song "Godspeed."

The song started with a heavy, piano-driven intro. "What am I supposed to do with you? / If you won't let me help you, why won't you?" sang Lewis.

Her bandmate Barbara Gruska came in with a triangle, which seemed to chime in the answer.

"Godspeed to you / Keep the lighthouse in sight."

As the band played "Rise Up With Fists!!" from Lewis' album, Rabbit Fur Coat, some of the audience members began to trickle up to the stage.

At first they were asked to sit down by Plaza Theatre staff, but the staff soon gave up when the number of people grew larger.

"I stood up and they told me to sit down at first," said Katie Simmons, one of the first people to start the trend. "I just couldn't sit down any longer. I was really glad she was playing so much stuff from her older albums."

Bree Adamson, who graduated from UCF with an advertising degree, said she was waiting to hear "Rise Up With Fists!!" because Lewis has such big vocals on that song. 

"Even though I wish we could have stood earlier, the Plaza Theatre is the best venue to see shows because the acoustics are like no other," she said.

Lewis and the rest of the band seemed thrilled that the audience took this initiative.

"Oh, thank God," Lewis said. "I was starting to feel like a science project up here. Everybody stand up!"

Lewis encouraged the crowd to move and bop.

"I don't write about Orlando for nothing, you know," Lewis said. "This is an example of music's collaborative effect."

As the crowd started to get more rambunctious, Lewis said, "Wait, is this Footloose?"

The crowd laughed and cheered even harder because just like in the 1984 movie, you can't stop people who want to dance.

It just doesn't work.

"When the whole crowd got up, it was really fun for us too," said Gruska, who plays guitar and drums along with singing backup vocals for Lewis' band. "The show was like a roller coaster because in the beginning everyone was really reserved but then just seemed to say ‘eff it' and by the end rocked out."

Villemon saw the whole ordeal as a throwback to her childhood.

"I guess it all just goes to show that we're all kids at heart and when they tell us to sit down we're not going to," she said. "And, clearly, neither is Jenny Lewis."