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Ingrid Michaelson at the Mann Center: More daring, and having fun

In advance of Tuesday night's blustery downpour, the Mann Center relocated the Ingrid Michaelson concert - her final Lights Out tour stop - from the standing-room-only Skyline Stage to the Mainstage pavilion, to benefit from the roof.

Ingrid Michaelson performed wearing her signature wide, rectangular glasses, a staple of her sleek aesthetic.
Ingrid Michaelson performed wearing her signature wide, rectangular glasses, a staple of her sleek aesthetic.Read more

In advance of Tuesday night's blustery downpour, the Mann Center relocated the Ingrid Michaelson concert - her final Lights Out tour stop - from the standing-room-only Skyline Stage to the Mainstage pavilion, to benefit from the roof.

Although at times the wind blew slants of mist under the enclosure, the crowd - young women (and some young men) in their teens and 20s, plus older couples and parents chaperoning kids - weathered the night with ponchos and umbrellas.

The first opening act, the girl-powered Secret Someones, played guitar-fueled breakup ditties. But the sky opened up in full force as the second act, the three-piece power pop/piano rock outfit Jukebox the Ghost, took the stage. Still, the bands managed to make the best of the situation, quipping about the deluge between songs.

Then Michaelson, wearing her signature wide, rectangular glasses, emerged in a sleeveless striped top and button-down skirt that evoked the sleek aesthetic of 2014's Lights Out album cover.

On a smoky stage, backlit by pulsing lights, Michaelson started with "Time Machine," a Lights Out track with a sultry beat. "You lit the fire, then drank the water," she crooned, the elemental imagery eerily appropriate.

Soon she had brought out her ukulele for "Everybody," the feel-good hand-clapper from her eponymous 2009 album; in final refrains, she sang, "Oh, everybody in Philadelphia." She thanked the audience of "troupers" for showing up despite the forecast.

With that, she segued from uke to keyboard, for "Overboard," from her self-released 2006 record, Girls and Boys. Spunky, with delicate trimmings, the song also boasts watery lyrics: "It'll take more than just a breeze to make me/ Fall over, fall over, fall overboard, overboard."

She maintained the wistful vibe with another crowd-pleaser, the buoyant, forward-thinking "Maybe." Then she invited friend and bandmate Allie Moss and Secret Someones' Bess Rogers - once a member of Michaelson's backup band - to join her for Bon Iver's "Skinny Love," a concert highlight and one of several covers. They included a soulful solo treatment of Elvis Presley's "Can't Help Falling in Love," backdropped by rainbow lighting in honor of the Supreme Court's marriage-equality decision. She'd later play a few other upbeat, "classic Ingrid" songs, including "Be OK" and "The Way I Am."

Instead of the spirited Lights Out single "Boys Like Girls," the finale was one more cover: Icona Pop and Charli XCX's synth-pop youth anthem "I Love It (I Don't Care)," with Michaelson, band, and opening acts.

With bolder, amped-up pop, the finale brought the show to a memorable, if overdone, conclusion, complete with confetti, drumming - on anything and everything - and an oversize mask of Michaelson's face paraded around the stage. The darling is more daring now, and she's having a good time.