My Evening with Peter Murphy

Getting tickets to the show was an adventure. Not wanting to pay $5 in fees I decided not to pay them online, but hit Greywhale on my way home, although I never made specific plans and of course forgot, so the weekend before the show I decided I would get my ticket at that point, but that day I was so sick and all thoughts and plans left my head and. Monday I started to panic as the show is tomorrow, but I figured I could still get them online. Until I read the bold SOLD OUT, that is. I started calling Greywhale locations and of course, the one by my house was sold out too, but the one in West Jordan still had a few. I called Husband but he was too sick and I figured I could go after work. They close at the unreasonable hour of 6 PM, but I figured if I really drove fast from the trax station, I could make it. Of course I don’t normally take trax on Mondays, but because of being sick I didn't want to risk going to the gym, so I took trax because it's so convenient, or something. Of course the ride home and my train gets stopped behind another train. I keep watching the time slip away, but it's only an extra few minute hold-up, I can make up for that. After practically running to my car at the station I speed to get onto the freeway. Only to come to a dead stop. Traffic is terrible and slow moving, finally when i make it up to the onramp, I find out why. The lights to get onto the freeway are out. My glimmer of hope is fading; I think that it's possible that I could still get there just before they close the doors. Then I see the freeway. Gridlocked. There is no way that trying to wade thro

ugh that mess would get me there in time.

My new plan is to call the venue tomorrow and see if any tickets open up. In the morning I check the online classifieds to see if anyone is selling tickets. Only 2 different people. One wants $75 for his pair, and the other wants $75 a piece. I send a text to the first guy; the tickets are spoken for, but if that falls through he'll let me know. I'm not desperate enough to pay $75 for a $25 ticket and if that's what it would cost me I'll just stay home. As the day starts to draw to a close i start calling the venue. No answer, I also work just around the corner from the venue, so I decide that I'll check it out if I can't get them to answer the phone. After work I walk around the corner, I see people milling about, the front door is slightly ajar, but I decide to head around back, as I could swear I heard music on my way over and if I can't get tickets, maybe I could hear Mr. Murphy sound checking and that would have to be enough. Unfortunately all I could hear was an occasional drum beat even with the venue's back door open to the parking lot, I wanted to get closer, but noticed some other people and didn't want to be asked to leave yet. I went back to the doors and walked in, the entry way was empty and right as I opened the door to inside a girl came in to man the desk. She told me there weren't any tickets but I could come back at 9 and see if there were any scalpers. Gee thanks. I walked out and went back to the back of the building and noticed that the chain link fence to their lot was shared with my work's I sat down and fiddled with my phone, trying to look busy and listen, but I couldn't hear anything, so disappointed I walked over and found that there was a gate in the fence and I could get back to my car that way.

I drove home disappointed. At home I jumped on the internet to see if I could find any other tickets for sale. No dice, but I saw the person trying to get $75 a ticket had lowered his price to $60 in the last hour. I sent a text asking for one at $40. No response. After about 40 minutes I decided I was staying home that night and tried to accept that. Then I got a text. It was from the first guy who had thought his tickets were sold. Since I'm so clever and I only needed one I told him that since I wasn't sure I could find anyone to take the other ticket if he would take $70 for them. He agreed. Now I had to find someone who would be willing to go on about 30 minutes notice. The wonderful Niki had commented when I had posted about wanting to go, so I called her and she was in! I spent a few minutes getting ready and saying bye to the kids and I picked up Niki, we headed to the venue and parked in my employee lot.

We met the nice Darren who sold us the tickets and waited in line. Doors opened around 8:30. The venue was pretty crappy. I saw some old friends who I haven't seen in years, even the boy who had always looked like Peter Murphy, actually when he walked by, for a moment, that's who I thought it was until I realized that this chap had hair and also wasn't as old. Honestly I had expected to see lots of folks that I knew from the old days of Baushas-listening and clubbing, but it was just these two. The opening people weren't much to write about, I liked the first guy okay, but the ultra-goth seeming Ours was too screamy and over the top, also the sound up front was awful and far too loud. Niki and I took ourselves to the back for Mr Murphy.

The wonderful Peter Murphy came out. He is looking pretty old, and his commitment to his thinning longer hair isn't doing him any favors. He began with new stuff, which is actually quite good, but I didn't know it as well (of course) but he treated us quickly to 2 Bauhaus songs Silent Hedges and In a Flat Field. He seemed very personal-able and comfortable, but almost everything he said was unintelligible which I think was mostly the fault of the poor sound system, but you could still hear the lovely British accent and a few words would slip through. His voice was still amazing, he has such a unique way of singing (just now my pandora radio is playing me a Peter Murphy song) and it was amazing to hear again. He played a song called Rose Hunter and said it had his absolute favorite guitar riff in it. Peter Murphy has not been idle, releasing EPs and albums and appearing in Twilight movies as a vampire (which knocked my socks off that I totally recognized him at the theater even in a wig for the brief time he was on-screen).

The section of older songs including Cuts You Up and I’ll Fall with your Knife was brilliant, all the club favorites. I was hoping for a cover of Hurt, but it was not to be and while I was expecting one additional song from the new album, the song The Prince and Old Lady Shade is one of my new favorites. The first encore started with my heart skipping a beat as he began to play Marlene Dietrich's Favourite Poem, which when the universe kept trying to remind me to buy tickets the week before had come onto my iPod and I thought "Oh wouldn't it be awesome if he played this song?" thinking that since it wasn't in any recent setlists and unlikely to make an appearance, but there it was and he sang it beautifully. Then Ziggy Stardust, he owns that song, sorry Bowie, when he sang that, the crowd went nuts and there was so much energy in it. I was surprised that we got another encore, a cover of some obscure singer and a final Bauhaus song Stigmata Martyr, which while awesome, didn't have quite the same "this is the last song" amazingness that Ziggy did.

It was a great show, and parking just through the gate was super fast which was good since it was soooo much later than I meant to be out on a Tuesday night. There was even a raccoon in my parking lot, staring at us with its wee banded eyes.

I'm so glad that Niki came with me, she rocks the house party and I was glad to have one of my dearest friends to share in the awesomeness of an unexpected concert!

I'm with the Band

So the day started out normal enough. I went to work and through the day I become sadder and sadder that I wouldn’t be seeing Matt Nathanson open for Kelly Clarkson that evening. I had decided that to see him play for 20-30 minutes it wasn’t worth the minimum $50 that the cheap seats would cost and then Husband and I were meant to attend an important meeting together at 7 that night, so really I felt that I should just wait until next time. As Tuesday grew closer to the close, I decided that I wanted to drop by the venue, just to see if anyone would be walking around and I could say hi and maybe I could stand at will-call and listen to a sound check and that could be my mini-concert. The Maverick center has a huge outside area that is fenced from the public that the tour buses and trucks can move around in, which makes it very difficult to see those people milling around that are rock stars or band members, so I didn’t have a lot of hope, but I did have a little. I went to that area and of course my entry was blocked by a nice man named Larry. I chatted with him for a minute, but I saw no movement around the tour buses, so I decided to head into the will-call area that would be open. As walked I noticed a pair heading into one of the backstage side doors, probably venue staff. Since I was walking that way, I have a few seconds to decide if I would try to follow them in, and if I hadn’t decided to, this story would be much, much shorter.


I ran to grab the door before it shut and stood for few seconds to let the pair head in whatever direction they were going before I walked in with the mantra “try to look like you belong here and this is no big deal” running through my head. I have been backstage here one other time, when I purchased VIP Tori Amos tickets that included meeting her after the show, so I headed left and found the dressing rooms, although the only ones I saw, said Kelly’s name on them. I was stopped quickly by a woman with security and asked for my pass, when I told her I didn’t have one, she told me that I couldn’t come back there and I tried to be as reassuring that I understood and that wasn’t a problem. But it was a problem in that I didn’t know where else to go. As walked away I realized I was directly behind the stage and coming from the stage was the sound of Matt’s voice! He was doing the sound check right that minute, but the sound behind the stage wasn’t very good. I did stop and listen for minute but I worried about the security woman leaving her post and seeing me would ask me to leave again. I didn’t know how to get to the front of the stage from where I was, there was another security guard between me and the stage here and I since the area was completely empty, I didn’t think I could stroll by unnoticed. So I walked back the way I had come and went the opposite way of where I had come from. I went down a hallway with a bunch of door and the open room showed a low-light buffet style dinner, there were people milling about and I wanted to see if I could get to the stage so I kept going. Out another set of doors and I found myself by the will-call and a set of bathrooms. I went into the bathroom and washed my hands and listened to the music, although it was still low quality. I stayed here for a few minutes trying to decide what to do. I could hear that a door would open and I would get the clear sound of Matt playing. I wanted to find that door, so I left the bathroom and headed through another set of doors but ended up in a storage area under the bleacher seats. I walked out quickly knowing if it looked like I didn’t know where I was going, I was likely to be kicked out. There was another set of doors, but I could see security milling about through them so I didn’t venture that way, only to find out later, that would have taken me right to the stage and that must have been the door I heard being opened. I would have seen Matt, but at the same time, I would likely be removed as soon as I showed myself a fan and not someone with the band. The music went silent and I started back down the hallway with the doors, as I did, I ran into Aaron, the guitarist. I said hi and he was very taken back. He said he recognized me but couldn’t’ remember my name. I teased him about that and he said he was headed to get some dinner from catering. He held a Tupperware plastic plate with little sections. I asked if it would be okay if I went with him, and he said yes. He grabbed some salad and some of the vegetarian dish, there was a lot of food in steaming silver trays and I watched with interest, taking everything in. We made some small talk about the tour and how he and matt had just flown in from San Francisco earlier in the day because they had another solo show they did without the band. He said they were drawing close to the end of the tour, but they were having a great time. He asked what I did, I told him about having a new job after being a full-time student. He asked where my seats were and I admitted that I didn’t have seats. I explained that being out of work I didn’t have much money and the tickets were pretty expensive. He said he could probably get me a pair of tickets. He was going to go have some down time before the show started but to check at will call after about an hour. He left and I tried to look busy by calling people, I didn’t think I would be able to see Matt’s set because of the appointment, but maybe I would be able to catch Kelly and see Matt after his set hopefully. I spoke with husband and found out that by a miracle, our appointment had been canceled. I was so happy! Now I could watch the show! But I was determined to hang out backstage for as long as possible and maybe get to talk with Matt, pre-show.

So I hung out by the back door, but the nice security guard, Larry, was still out there and I didn’t want him to recognize me and wonder how I’d gotten backstage. So I walked back down the hall and looked into the catered area, but most people had their backs to the door and I didn’t want to be too obvious so I kept moving, back to the bathrooms, and then after trying a door, hung out in an empty room listening to the sounds of people moving around and hoping to hear Matt’s voice. After gathering my courage I decided to just head into the dinner room. I made a point of looking at the food and then after surveying the room and seeing some of Matt’s band and crew decided to say hi. The bassist, Sioban, welcomed me and asked if I wanted to sit at the table. I of course agreed. The drummer, Konrad, was there they were eating dinner with 2 crew members. We chatted and I took some photos of me and the band and they asked if I wanted something to eat. I declined, probably mostly because I didn’t want to take advantage of being where I shouldn’t be, but also because I didn’t think I would be able to hide my shaking hands if I tried to eat. I did grab a bottle of water. James, the keyboardist showed up and I introduced myself and that we had met last time he was in Salt Lake. We played a game where you take a famous person and make their name food related. Konrad scored with Johnny Dipp for an ice cream shop, there was Felicia Del Taco, and several others. My contribution was Carmel Elektra, which considering how slow my brain was going, was a miracle. One of the crew members got a call, and wrote down my name on a piece of paper. I said “Oh, that’s me!” and he explained they were already over the quota of tickets, but that he would try to get me two tickets, I told him I only needed one and I appreciated anything he could do, than he left. The rest of us kept playing the game and chatting, they had some inside jokes, but the conversation wasn’t easy, It was more like coworkers who like eack other and have worked together for a while, but they aren’t best friends, but also, they are guys and conversing might not be the easiest thing for them. The crew member came back and handed me a ticket and I thanked him a few times. Then he asked how I had gotten back stage. I told him I couldn’t say, he didn’t like that, but the band thought it was pretty funny. He asked me to make sure that I leave and go in by the main entrance and not stay backstage and use anyone’s name to sound official. I said that that was my plan. The band were working on the s’mores bar that had been set up and I wanted to eat that, but knew that marshmallows are very messy and I didn’t want to ruin what little make-up I had on. I did make fun on Konrad while he made a mess and soon they were done eating. I asked to walk with them and Konrad said they really check badges by the dressing rooms and said that he would walk me out. He took me from behind the stage to the floor area and I thanked him and gave him a “pre-show” hug, I asked him that since I didn’t know if I would see Matt, if he would tell him I said hi, he said he would. I looked at my ticket and while it was on the side, it was pretty close to the stage, but right now I was on the floor! I could potentially find an open seat and enjoy Matt’s show from there! I would have done this but I had parked in a hotel parking lot when I arrived, since I didn’t believe I would be there too long and I didn’t want to pay the $10 parking fee just to leave before the show started. But now that I would be here awhile, I kept trying to decide if I should move my car or risk getting towed, since tonight would be a concert, I’m sure the staff makes sure people aren’t parking there to avoid the parking fee. Finally I decided that I needed to move it, $10 for a parking fee was less than the $50 that other people would have spent on their ticket.

So I moved my car and went in looking for my seat because the show was getting ready to start, looking critically at my seats, I was about as far from the stage as if I was in the second half of the floor, so I’m glad I didn’t risk being towed just for a similar seat.

Matt began the show with To the Beat of Our Noisy Hearts, which is one of my favorites off Some Mad Hope, then came the title track to Modern Love and is also a favorite. I knew from looking at other set lists that he would only play very up-tempo songs in preparation for Kelly Clarkson’s set. I love the maracas on this song, it’s nice to see Matt not behind the guitar. Next came Run, which he sung with the wife of one of Kelly’s band members. She was very good and sounded just like the Sugarland person to me. I spent a lot of that song trying to get my camera to record a video since that’s Magen’s favorite song, but my camera hates me and won’t and then by the time I realized I could record video on my phone, the song was over. Now the sing-a-longs were to start. The standard cover of James’ Laid was lovely and he really got the crowd involved. His banter was hilarious. Picking certain people in the audience he made sure to have a few personal connections so that the crowd would really connect to him. It worked, I could hear a ton of people singing the chorus for this song. Next came Wedding Dress, which I still love the original Winter Dress version, but this song really touched a chord with me tonight and Matt was definitely singing his heart out. Of course, the crowd pleaser, Faster, I kind of wanted to call Hayley and have her listen, since she loves it, but it was probably bedtime anyway and she wouldn’t have appreciated it really. With Faster he mixed in the Monkees Daydream Believer and Whitney Houston’s I Wanna Dance With Somebody, which were great tributes and really excited the crowd, although I really thought he was going to break into George Michael’s Faith, and apparently in other shows that has happened, it was not to be here. He ended with Come On, Get Higher and everyone was singing along. It was beautiful. He said he would sign things by the merchandise booth and I got all happy and excited. So after the show was over, I headed to the merch booth, I decided to use my graduation money and buy myself the Matt tote bag. I hung out for awhile but then security confirmed that Matt would not be out until after Kelly performed. Boo. But I figured free concert, beggars can’t be choosers. The concert was good, I thought about how it was my first true pop concert. She seemed very down to earth and while she shied away from the familiar high notes from the radio versions, she sure sounded good to me and while I didn’t know a lot of the songs, there was a sprinkling of the hits I knew from the radio. But during the show my camera died. Apparently even though on the meter it looked like it had some battery, if it shows the meter, that means it’s low. My heart sank thinking I might not get my picture with Matt, but then I resolved to make friends with someone around me and ask them to email me my photo. During the first song of Kelly’s encore I headed back to the merch booth. There was already a long line, behind metal barriers. A few years ago I asked matt that when he became more famous, if we would be penned like sheep the way that Tori does her Meet’n’Greets and he said there was no way. But yet here we are, but luckily he was not across the barrier from us, but inside with us and it was more to keep us in a line, but still, it’s the principle of the thing. Lucky for me they were only letting you in line if you had Matt merchandise to sign, so I was glad that I had something to present. I made friends with the girls behind and they agreed to email me my picture. When I got up to Matt, he got the look of recognition and said “Hey you” and he hugged me. I don’t know if he was hugging everyone, but probably. The same crew guy that had gotten me my ticket was taking pictures and ushering things along. Of course my mind went blank of all the things I meant to say, but I did ask if maybe he played Wedding Dress for the Bachelor performance he had a few months ago, but of course he hadn’t, and didn’t seem to recognize that I was being ironic. I told him that I was glad that he hadn’t needed to fall asleep immediately after the show since that what he did the last time he was here and he talked about how exhausting the shows had been, I meant to tease him, but I’m sure it came out more like a berating, which is apparently how I react when I’m nervous. He signed my bag and told me that he had forgotten my name and when I reminded him he used a very colorful expletive as if he should have remembered. The crew guy said my time was up and I thanked Matt and said goodbye and watched as my new friends, Mallory and Ashlee got their pictures with him, then it was over. My night of craziness had come to an end, now I got to fight to get out of the parking lot and drive home to get 6 hours of sleep in which time I dreamed of Matt and had all the songs running through my head all night. I woke up still exhausted, but it was well worth it.

Two Mornings After

Thanks to my wonderful friend Trish, I was able to attend the James show October 5th. It was rushing all day for me, from kids doctor appointments to dashing to work, to dashing to the sitters, to dashing back home and thank goodness dinner was waiting. Then it was mad dash down town. I think we made it in record time. I was only brave enough to look at the speedometer once, but when Trish drives, you know you’ll be on-time, even if you left late!
It was first time ever going to the Complex, it apparently has 3 stages, and there was another show going on for the local disillusioned, angsty radio station and James. Most of the people we saw were headed to the other show, we only got there about 20 minutes before they opened the doors, but we managed to get a spot about 3 rows of people from the front just right of center. The room was long and narrow, and probably tinier then anything this band has played in a long time. In Europe they play huge stadium shows. Trish and I got our James shirts and settled in. The opening act was a singer/songwriter named Ed Harcourt, whose album I am strongly considering buying. He played the piano, and the guitar, sometimes in the same song and really wailed. Unfortunately the sound was pretty muddy, at least where we were and while I enjoyed the sound, it wasn’t the best place to decide if he was really awesome or not. We could barely understand what he was saying when he spoke. His drummer looked like a young Gregory House, he didn’t look like Hugh Laurie, the actor that plays house, but House, and the bassist chick reminded me of Kate Beckett from the show Castle. Ed was resplendent in his 3 piece suit, those Europeans sure are stylish. His set seemed long, probably almost an hour, but since he was the only opener, he may have been able to play as long as he liked. I made a mental note to check him out on iTunes and hoped to get my picture with him afterwards since he was adorable and I knew that if I did like his music, I would want a picture of me with him.
Just before James took the stage, some loud, noisy drunk joined the group just behind us. How is it that they always know when to come in and how do they always get these great spots when they walk in late? That’s always the way. He seemed like he was completely wasted and I was apprehensive about how his presence would affect the rest of us.
James came out, Tim Booth looked like a pirate with a knit cap, a dark black goatee and striped baggy pants. Almost “Hammer-esque” pants, but they didn’t taper. The first song was Seven and I knew that this was going to be an awesome show. Tim lost his cap quickly and I realized I had never seen him perform before. He likes to dance, and his dancing reminds me of the episode of Friends where Rachel takes Phoebe running in the park, crossed with a seizure. It’s good he’s a rock star, because dancing like that, he’d never get chicks if he wasn’t.
Next was She’s a Star, what a great song. Unfortunately I was getting pounded by the drunk. After several massive elbows to my skull, I turned around to confront. I’m not sure what I was thinking, there’s no way I could have done anything to hurt him, even if he could feel pain at this point, which I’m not certain he would. Luckily before my impulses took too much over, Trish grabbed me and switched spots with me. I shook it off, but this guy’s singing was so loud, that even with the huge speakers in my face, I couldn’t hear very well. After enduring 2 more songs near the man, Trish and I escaped stage right after I said I would rather be in the back then next to this guy. At this point we could really start enjoying things. The first song from the new album come up, 10 Below. It’s a great song and I was so happy that I had purchased this on iTunes and listened to it a bunch of times and it was followed up by the best song from the new album, Tell Her I Said So. Time says what a great setup we had here in Salt Lake, we could drop the “kids” at the concert next door and then the grown-ups could be at this show. Since they were going to be competing with sound, they would play some louder songs. Then my favorite moment of the night. Just Like Fred Astaire. One of my favorite James’ songs. Time mentioned that it was easier to play this song in America then in some other countries they have played since we were so happy. During Getting Away with It I was surprised that to this point, out of 8 songs, I knew all but one of them. I love James, but I don’t “celebrate their whole collection.” I have their best of, their vital album Laid, their new album The Morning After and a few songs from other albums.
At this point, I had seen the drunk guy get to the very front of the stage and push a girl who couldn’t have been more than 5 ft tall and stumble around probably whacking other people the way he had me, then the guy just in front of Trish went after him, I think the drunk guy pushed his girlfriend as well. Trish and his girlfriend were both holding him back, but Trish was doing all the work, maybe his girlfriend wanted him to beat the crap out of this guy. Heavens knows that I wanted him too as well, but I also was telling him it wasn’t worth it. From the stage Tim says, “Cool it guys” and the boyfriend weaves to the front and yells: he’s pushing girls! And Tim asks if there is any security, apparently there were none, so Tim told the drunk to get into the corner. Everyone clapped. And thank goodness he stayed out of the way the rest of the night, I’m sure he was ruining everyone’s experience that he was near. You know it’s bad when the band has to take measures into their own hands to keep the peace.
Next came some songs I didn’t really know so I watched the band. They had a person who mostly played the trumpet. A dedicated trumpet player, I hadn’t realized there was so much brass in most James songs, and a guitar player that also moonlighted as a violin player, and boy was he good! His name was Saul and definitely looked English. Several of the band members looked like someone’s grandpa you would meet at a family reunion. Bald and wearing spectacle-glasses. Only 2 members looked like they were anywhere close to their 30s. There were 3 songs I wanted to hear, I had already heard Fred Astaire, but then they played PS, which I had put on one of my mixes a few weeks ago and was once again in love with it. Often if Tim wasn’t dancing like a maniac or singing, he would stand with his eyes closed, smiling, enjoying the music. At one point, Tim said we were just as loud as a stadium. The crowd seemed really into it. I didn’t see anyone who didn’t look thrilled to be there. During Say Something Tim got off the stage and started walking through the crowd, Exactly where Trish and I HAD been before we moved to be away from the drunk guy. Luckily he spent quite a bit of time in the crowd and started heading our way. He stopped in front of the boyfriend and I saw him ask if he was okay and the guy thanked Tim. Then he was facing me. It was a vocal break in the song and he stood there, arms folded, looking at me. I wanted to take a picture, but I didn’t want to flash in his face, I wanted to hug him, but the man is imposing in a way you wouldn’t think someone so thin looking would be. I finally settled on touching his arm and moving on, embarrassed that I couldn’t think of anything better to do or say. Then they started their hit song Laid. I tried to take a video, but my camera wouldn’t have it. I had to settle for jumping up and down and singing along. I had worried that age was creeping up on Tim’s voice and it wouldn’t be as strong as it was in 1993, but I didn’t need to worry, he hit those super high notes with ease. They left and we clapped and cheered and our encore was awesome. The first song was the first off the new album, a song about a man whose been dumped staring at dust motes trying to forgive the ex-girlfriend. Since the show next door was over they could know play some quieter songs, so this one started out sweet, of course it got loud and vindictive, as it should. Then Out to Get you melted into Sometimes. The keyboard player moved to the front and had some weird handheld keyboard you blow into. Like a cross between a keytair and an accordion. The final refrains of Sometimes: Sometimes when I look in your eyes, I can see your soul” the crowd started singing at the end and then the band stopped playing it was just the crowd singing. Tim stood with his eyes closed and a huge grin on his face. Then it was over. We cheered for a bit, but no more encores. Trish asked one of roadies cleaning up for the set list that had probably been Saul’s. Several people took pictures of the list and we walked out. I was sad that we wouldn’t be able to stay and wait for the band, as I get precious little sleep as it is. But low and behold. There were 6 band members. The only one missing was Tim, but since we had the set list, we went down the line and got everyone’s autograph. I got a photo with Saul and Ed Harcourt was also there so I got that photo with him. He photographs well, I’m pleased with the result. Talking to Saul we found out that after their last album, they did play Salt Lake and we just missed it, so apparently the moral of the story is if there is anyone you would like to see in concert, be on some kind of mailing list. Then Trish and I left, apparently Tim did come out to mingle with fans, but I only got 5 hours of sleep as it was, so while I would have liked to stay, I’m glad I did get some sleep. It was an awesome night and I can’t thank Trish enough for an amazing birthday present!

How to Save My Life (Cable Car)

The Fray July 18, 2009
USANA is a massive amphitheatre and as such has a large number of seats. I’ve noticed lately with many shows, they offer 2 for 1 tickets. When I got the notice that this would be the case for the Fray show, I asked my Komrade for most concerts, Erika, if she would like to go. She thought for a few days and we decided to get ourselves to the Fray show.
Now, I like the fray, every song on the radio, I’m fond of. I have the first album and after we bought seats to this show, I spent a little time with the new album online while I worked. It’s good.
After week of girls camp, I came home Friday and had homework to finish, and that took some time and then there were Saturday chores. And what I’m trying to say is that I almost forgot about this show on Saturday. Good thing Erika did not. We set out in the sweltering July heat and without being concerned about when the openers were starting we went to sit in the shade and gossip. After Erika was done telling me about her week and the opening band, meese was done playing, we decided to catch the rest of Jack’s Mannequin’s set. We spent a lot of time googling the band on Erika’s phone to figure out how cute the lead singer was. This is still unresolved. They are piano-drive rock, and we like that, so after the lead singer walked on the piano keys, not once, but at least twice, Erika decided that she would get their album. I couldn’t decide if I wanted a shirt or something, so I was empty handed but excited for the Fray. The stage set-up looked cool, but we were so far away it was hard to tell at this stage and we lamented that we wouldn’t be able to see anyone’s face as the band played. They have no jumbo-tron at USANA and this is grave oversight since most of the audience is like a mile away from the stage.
(As I write this, a Fray song starts on my player. It makes me smile.)
The fray started, all I could see of the leader singer was that he looked like an albino. Bald, pale head, white shirt, white suit coat. But it was his voice that impressed me right off. He has a lovely singing voice; they started with an acapella version of Home and I was hooked. And there were some screens! Four conjoined screens focused on the 4 band members. Erika and I started grooving with the rest of the audience to classics like How to Save a Life, Over My Head, and the new Never Say Never and You Found Me, where I introduced Erika to my version of the chorus, (Where was you?/Where was you?) which is very catchy and funny. We laughed about how we knew almost nothing about the band except they are from Colorado. After especially good moments we would say things like “You rock Mr. The Fray!” I liked calling him that, that little albino on stage. I got hooked on the song Little House (which took me days to figure which song it was even though I have it) and heard the Fray’s take on kanye west’s song Heartless. It was lovely, much better then Kanye’s version, I’m sure. There were LED lights on cltoh background that displayed images and white twinkle lights draped from the top of the stage, they made quite an impressive display and made the songs exciting. Erika remarked more than once that we should really read the lyrics for their songs, because they seemed so intense and beautiful, we should really know what he’s singing about.
After the show we were still on cloud nine. We decided to see if we could meet either jack’s mannequin or the fray, not expecting too much. The last time I was at this venue, I was there for Tori and was had to wait across the street from the backstage area and it was crappy and then we had to leave. I wasn’t expecting much more, but after finding a fan who was trying to meet the band with her 15 year old son, we decided to see where this went. I had a lesson in church the next day and I was still exhausted from camp and the day’s activities, but in the euphoria of the after-concert, I didn’t want to give up. After not a very long wait one member of the fray showed up at the gate, Dave. The awesome security guard let us back behind the gate with a promise not to make a run for it. It was oddly disconcerting to hear Dave’s American accent, since he looked so freaking Scottish to me. Erika was able to talk to him about Colorado and to find out another member of the band grew up a few blocks from her old house. After that we didn’t have much to say, but he was very polite. Then the other said member of the band, Ben, came out and signed our tickets and Erika told to him about Colorado and asked him about a local band from there, which sucks, thankfully he thinks they suck too. We discussed whether or not we were breaking erika’s fangirl rule for herself. Which is this: don’t be a lame fangirl for someone younger than yourself. Then Mr. the Fray came out. His name is Isaac, as we found out when we googled the band. We wanted to sound not like idiots. That’s important to us. Talked a bit about Colorado, of which I had nothing to add, of course. I asked for hug and he apologized for being kinda dazed as he had just had a massage (he had the bleary, I-just-had-a-massage face too) and then we took a picture with my phone. He was nice, not at rock star about anything, which is surprising because his band is really huge and he has every right to be a bit smug, but he was totally down to earth. In the picture he looks like he’s sneering, but he was quite pleasant. He didn’t look as much like an albino up close and even has a thin bit of hair, poor dear. Erika asked how old he was and he said 28, and I mentioned that meant she was not breaking her rule and Isaac (because we’re on first name basis) asked what that was all about, I told him and he seemed amused. We took our leave with our picture looking good to let the mom and her son have their moment. She obviously loves the Fray and saw them at a radio performance years ago before they were big. I can’t say anything bad about her, because in a few years, that’s freaking me. I’m going to be the mom dragging my child to the concert and riding the pit and being a cooler than all the other moms (I hope) so kudos to her for not being afraid of the preconceived notion of age and rocking out.
I thanked the security guard, because honestly, he didn’t lie to us, he didn’t try to make us leave and he didn’t make us feel like we were being lame or stupid while waiting to meet the band. I shook his hand and he really wanted us to try and see his metal band play at the “Dog Pound” in a few days. Sadly we didn’t make that show, I’m sure it was a riot.
We walked through the empty venue all giggly from the lack of sleep and excitement of meeting another rock star. I’ve been addicted to the new album online and I’m almost ready to buy it. I want it, but I’m so cheap, but I think I’m almost to the point where I need it and money is no object. It’s beautiful nd maybe even better than the first album.
All I have to say is, Isaac, keep the music coming.

The Band Who

Last night something happened that I thought I would never get to see. Travis the band playing in Salt Lake. It's great because I've been a long time fan, since there The Man Who album came out in 2000, thanks to friends who knew that Brit pop is something I love.

They've never come to Utah in the whole of my fandom, so I figured it was just a matter of time before they followed my favorites, Gene, and broke up and never toured again.

When I found out they were coming I started listening to the new album online. It's good, a return to the energy of their first album but with more umph. I'm not sure how to put that into technical terms. But I didn't buy the album, by the time I got around to really listening, there were only a few days left before the show.

Erika and I were partners in crime and get there pretty early and ended up very close to the front. It was standing and so there was a lot of shifting as people pushed in and whatnot.

The opening band was Republic Tigers and they were great, it was hard to really hear them well, but they sounded very new wave but with some Killers mixed in and the guys voice oscillated between the deep of Peter Murphy to an amazing falsetto. He sang Blonde's "Heart of Glass" and he sounded like Debbie Harry, it was wild.

Then out came the fabulous Travis. I knew who the lead singer was, and I had looked up the names of the rest of the band, but the crowd obviously knew them all, which really helped me figure out who was who. The bassist, Dougie, came out in a long buttoned up peacoat and was basically a rock star the whole time. Fran was amazing, so full of energy. They rocked out! I was taken so by surprise. Most of their songs are pretty laid back, but none of them were at the show, they were all amped up to 11! The guitarist Andy was jamming on his guitar with his whole body and Fran got up on the bass drum and played his guitar several times. It was great. They played a lot of the new songs at first, which were familiar, and I was surprised at how clearly even up close I could make out all the words. They played almost every one of my favorites, "Writing to Reach You," "Turn," "Closer," "Humpty Dumpty Lovesong" and "All I Want to Do is Rock." During "Falling Down", Fran got off the stage and walked through the center of the crowd. We were too far on the side to be in on that, but he danced with some girl, shook hands, gave high fives, for almost the whole song! It was really cool. We were right in front of Dougie and let me tell you, this guy enjoys his bass playing. He smirked and rocked through the whole show, he was a treat to watch all by himself. It helped that he looked our way and smiled even wider. I like to think it's because I'm so freaking awesome.

It was also the night of the Britney Spears concert just yards away for our venue, so of course "One More Time" made an appearance, it was really fun.

The played "Slideshow" during the encore and on the album after that song is a "hidden track" after you listen to air for 5 minutes a song called "Flashing Blue Light" starts, and i thought "Wouldn't it be funny if they did that song right after?" and they did. To close the show they did "Flowers in the Window" acoustic and it was really lovely.

I bought a cool Travis shirt that I can wear and people will ask me who the heck this Travis guy is, but it's all good. It was great how chatty they were, mostly Fran talked, but Dougie also did a bit, and it was so great to hear their cute Scottish accents. Erika got me a copy of the drummer's setlist, for which I am very grateful, since I didn't know the names for all of the new songs, but now I have it forever!

We booked it to the side of the venue where the tour buses were. It was raining lightly and it was just us and some other guy there trying to meet the band. We walked around the loading area, but there was no sign of life, we even walked into the back of the venue and walked around but most the doors were locked. After a few minutes of serious discussion, we decided that this had to be the place they would come out. We were right, after a few minutes the crew appeared and straighted putting away the gear, including the huge gong used for one song. This went on for a while and it continued to rain and more people came until we were a little group. Finally the keyboardist came out and headed around us the tour bus. A few people talked to him, I decided to focus on official band members. I had brought my "Turn" single if there was a chance of getting something signed, that would be the coolest thing that I had. It also had the live cover of Britney's "One More Time" so it's a treasured possession and I'm really glad that I remembered that I had it that day.

Andy, the guitarist came out and posed for pics and signed stuff, he was cool. Turns out they are from Glasgow, so we could chat about that a little. The drummer Neil came out and he so reminded me of the Irish guy from Braveheart, very similar sense of humor and also the same dark, lanky hair. He was fun.

Dougie came out and was mobbed. Apparently he might as well be the band leader since he gets lots of attention. I can understand that, he's easily the most attractive band member, but mostly it was all boys that were calling out to him and shouting that they loved him. He's probably their man-crush. He was such a rock star on stage and very kind in person. He asked us our names as he signed our paraphernalia and was very gracious with all the people that wanted to get his picture.

After a few minutes Fran came out. The people were respectful, I'm not sure that giving them a CD of your band is the way to go, but I guess if the right person hears it and you don't suck, there's a chance. Still, I think it's dumb, but I'm not in a band. I should be, I decided that since I rock the house on Rockband drumming, I should be some one's drummer. Every band needs a drummer. But that's neither here nor there.

We waited patiently for Fran to work through the crowd. A nice guy named Robert was letting everyone borrow his sharpie to get things signed (what kind of groupie am I that i don't have a sharpie on me at all times?) and we told him we'd take his picture with Fran and e-mail it to him if he took ours. I took his picture and it looked good, then we tried to exchange the camera and it went crashing hard on the pavement. Even Fran said "that's not good." The view screen was all white. I wasn't thinking rationally or I would have tried to take out the battery and memory card, but we decided that it might still take pictures okay, so we took 2 sets of pics of me and Erika with Fran. One with Erika's cell phone and one with my damaged camera. Robert felt really bad, but it was an accident and I wanted a new camera anyway since it takes not so good shots at concerts. After Fran left for the tour bus, I took out the battery and put it back in and it turned on but said the battery was dead (which it was close before, so that could have been natural) but it wouldn't let me view the pictures, so I didn't know if our pictures with Fran had come out or not. Finally I got the screen to work, but it was upside down. Not the worst, but I was hoping for no real damage. We looked and saw that the pictures we took with Fran were there, but the one of Robert and Fran wasn't. I'm still not sure if it was erased or if it's somewhere on the camera. But look! Aren't we cute?

Of course we thought our adventure was now over and we headed to the trax station to get home. But Wait! Even though Erika had gotten the weekday schedule for Trax online that said the last train was at 1 am, the sign at the station said it really left around 11:30. And it was 12:05. Luckily Erika was able to call her friend and she headed right over to get us. Of course while we were waiting we thought some guy was going to kill us, but he just walked on by. Maybe he didn't know that trax was done running too.

So we got home very late and now I'm at work wishing that somehow I could sleep under my desk, but it was so worth it!

I got the gum!!!

He played "Amazing Again"!!!!!! More later on how I annoy rock stars, right now I'm deciding if a road trip is in order....

Fabulous Friday!

I almost forgot to post today! That's how crazy it's been today, what with watching last night's Grey's Anatomy and yoga and lunch and dancing. Work is hard!
So I'm actually touching the computer at home!
Yoga today was hard! It's not a real yoga class, it's a class for students to learn how to be yoga teachers, so today the chick leading us was having us listen to orchestra versions of Metalica. It was a little weird, but it was also tough, and that's what I'm looking for in my yoga. Also, I don't know what all these people are talking about with the farting and yoga. I have yet to pass gas in the yoga setting, maybe because we're doing a more "power" yoga kind of thing. But I thought there would be people breaking wind every which way, and so far (about 2 months in) this has yet to happen. But there's only 2 more weeks of yoga. Sad face! I like it and it gives me something to look forward to during work on a Friday, when usually all I can look forward to is coming home again.
So gas prices, huh? I filled up my tiny car for just over 20 bucks and I was still kicking myself when I saw gas for 4 cents less somewhere else! I could have save 36 cents! Curses! But I'm glad that gas isn't so crazy. (Not the gas for my house, for some reason the rates only go one way for that) but I'm crossing my fingers for under $2 a gallon. Suck on that Europe! (please note that I love Europe and all it's diverse cultures. Except the French, they're just rude { except that guy I met at DisneyWorld, here's looking at you Olivier!}) I love ellipses. They rock my socks. I must be slowly getting into a great mode here at home with all the work stuff slipping away. And the fact that it's just barely over 24 hours until Matt. I've been waiting for this since March! Which was the last time I saw him! But really, if you saw him, you would also be excited for the next time you could see him. So go and see him! www.mattnathanson.com It's a crappy site to maneuver, but that's not Matt's fault, he just plays the rock and leaves the websites for the other people who are less awesome to dealt with it.
Since the concert is starting fairly early I want to just post that tomorrow but my brain could be mush until the next morning, so we'll see how things pan out. But it might just be a picture. But that's a post and that counts!

Berlin, Baby

It was Friday night. I had just gotten home and dinner was in the oven. Then Erika calls and says Berlin is playing in Park City later that night and we should totally go. I agreed, mostly because I needed a night out, but I was stressed as I didn’t know how quickly I could finish dinner, get ready put the child to bed and go. I was also thinking that I would probably only know about 2 Berlin songs, but Erika and I would find a way to make it fun.
Getting ready for a concert takes time and effort, neither of which I had. I wanted to be a bit eighties so I threw on a bright red shirt and tried to be slimming by wearing black pants.
Erika and I headed up the canyon. It was a nice drive because it was so late in the evening. The doors didn’t open until 9 and when Erika had called, we found out that Berlin wouldn’t even be taking the stage until after eleven.
When we had almost gotten there I pulled out the newspaper with the ad in it to find the address. That’s when I saw this concert was for the Park City Prom Night. I’d heard just a little about that and thought it was awesome! I wanted to go and wear a bridesmaids dress or something super cool and 80’s. Doh! Hopefully next year! We went in and they were spinning 80’s tunes and there was a small dance floor! Erika and I got our picture taken and wanted it to be a true prom picture and I think it turned out that way.
Neither of us were prepared to be dancing our little butts off, but it was so fun! It was like going to the club on 80’s night and having no one else on the dance floor! Mostly it was me, Erika and some skanky lady grinding against her boy toy. But it was super fun! They played George Michael’s “Faith” and I totally shook my booty for it. There was an opening band. They mostly played 80’s covers, which was awesome, but they mixed in there own songs a little, which weren’t awesome. But if I had known there were really people like that, I would have had them play at my wedding! Of course then the colors would have had to be hot pink and turquoise to fit the theme, but fun!
During the opening band the “dance floor” got pretty packed but Erika and I ended up state right at the very front. Then Berlin. Terri Nunn came out in a cute coat and started the rocking with “Masquerade.” Everyone thinks of the song from Top Gun when they think of Berlin, but because I watch a lot of VH1, I knew that song was the reason that band broke up, because they hated playing it because really Berlin is a new wave punk band. But I didn’t know how hard they would rock! Terri was coming to the very front of the stage and the crowd went nuts, we could have reached out and touched her. She almost hit me with the microphone once. It was sweet. I didn’t recognize all the songs, but we also heard “No More Words”, “Sex (I’m a…)”, “Shiny”, “Hideaway” and during “The Metro” she sat on the speaker right in front of us and held Erika’s hand and Erika being totally flustered but her other hand on her knee! Mostly Erika was just trying to remember the words to the song, so we could look like real fans.
They played a cover of a Prince song, but I don’t like Prince, but I was excited for Erika, she does like Prince. I was excited to hear her play Depeche Mode's "Never Let me Down Again", she also played a very slow acoustic version of Duran Duran’s “Come Undone” which she said she added to the setlist after her mother passed away. IT was sweet but she was sitting in a chair, with her legs open. In a short skirt. You see where I’m going with this? Luckily she was wearing tights (which were grey and awesome), so basically it was just trying not to look at her crotch, since we were at that just right angle. But Terri looked amazing, absolutely gorgeous. She’s aged incredibly well and now me and Erika have girl crushes on her. I was very impressed with her energy. At one point she got on the shoulders of a security guard and went through the crowd a little. She was such a rock star! There was a little musical interlude. The keyboardist played a song while Terri had a costume change. She came back all gothed out! She was wearing a corset and these awesome high heeled boots with the toes and heels cut out! We were so close that not only could we see that she has a mole on the side of her stomach, we could have also touched it! Eww!
The very last song was “Take my Breath Away” and it was really lovely, but kind of out of place. But I was very impressed because Terri had been screaming and doing all the rock singing all night, but her voice on this song was soaring and flawless. For the encore Terri came out with a black feather boa and asked if we wanted to dance. Then she told the people up front to climb onto the stage and dance with her! I went totally retarded but I was all about that! The security guard reached down for my hand, but then I didn’t know how to pull myself up without using both hands, so the poor guy had to dang me onto the stage while I flopped like a fish. I have some nasty bruises on my thigh from it! But I got a bright pink boa and while the stage was pretty crowded, I was up on stage dancing with Terri Nunn while she performed! Unfortunately it was a cover of that Mason Song “Dope Show” and I didn’t have to listen, I just had to dance! It was super sweet. Unfortunately I was not a genius and left my camera at home. Erika was able to get one decent picture on her ancient cell phone camera, but it doesn’t do justice to just how close we were to her. If I had brought my camera, I’d have evidence of the mole!
It was such an incredible night, Erika and I left on a major high. Even getting pulled over and told that ‘stop signs look the same from the east coast to the west coast’ didn’t put a damper on our excitement!
Berlin, I’d definitely see you in concert again!

Bringing the Sexy

Watch Matt's new video and vote for him on yahoo's "Who's Next?" section.

Come On Get Higher

Me and the Rockstars Get on Fine

Matt Nathanson was one of the openers for Lifehouse here at the Depot. I’m not a Lifehouse fan, but we all know how much of a fan girl I am for little Matty. I had never been to the Depot and since I wasn’t a Lifehouse fan I figure no one else would be either, so I wasn’t worried about tickets. Lucky for me, my friend Trish is a little more anally retentive and she went and got us both tickets because the show, it sold out. I wanted Magen and Erika to come again and for Niki to join me in my Matt-love, but alas, it was not to be. So Trish and I arrange to meet downtown at the Gateway mall, since that’s where the Depot is! Who knew? So just over an hour before the doors are suppose to open I get there and check out the line. There were about 25 people in line, but it was freezing and Trish and I were hungry! So we headed over to the food court and ate and the dude at the Chinese food place tried to steal Trish’s credit card by inaction, and if she had not tried to use the ATM, we might not have known it was even missing. Seriously. We sat in front of this guy for about 25 minutes while he held onto her card and didn’t say anything! What a jerk! So after that we made it into line about 6:50 pm, thinking they would open the doors at 7 sharp and then we’d be fine. Unfortunately the line was now about 150 people long, so we got in the back and waited. And waited. And waited. 7 came and went and while the depot employees were trying to get things streamlined by going down the line and checking IDs for hand-stamps (21 and over my friends) but we were all grumbling at this point. Trish and I were right in the driveway for the valet parking, so we got to be very close to many fancy cars, which we had an intense desire to vandalize in some way. Perhaps we are more like teenagers than we’d like to believe.

Finally the doors opened after the venue people explained to us that the opening band was late for sound check and we all rushed in. As Trish expected the first spots to go were along the sides in chairs and up by the bar, so while the front of the stage was pretty packed, we were able to get fairly close on the side. Not an amazing spot by any means, but decent. Of course that wasn’t taking into account the rude drunks that had gotten pretty good spot right in the cent near the stage. They had to keep leaving to get drinks. I think they went back and forth about 8 times. I’m sorry? Can’t you go sit at the bar? I’m sorry that while pushing your way up front, your beer spilled, but that’s the chance you take when you’re a moron! Oh well.
Then of course standing right in front of me was the she-male. I swear that even with the dangling earrings and the sparkly vest-shirt (shest?) that this was a man. She was heavy set with a buzz cut, so imagine my surprise when I saw a woman’s face. She was probably in her 50s and a good 4 to 5 inches taller than me and this woman couldn’t’ keep her head still to save her life. She kept tilting it with the music, so while for a minute, I’d have a good view and then, tilt! Good view is now just a view of the she-males buzzed head!
Trish and I were ready to hate the opening band, called Honey Honey, since they were the reason we had to stand in line outside for an extra 25 minutes, and when they came out, I thought at first they were about 12, turns out it was just my view, as the lead singer is taller than me. They were so awesome. They explained that they had just gotten out of the car after the drive from Colorado and had not even had time to change their clothes. They had a very bluesy feel to them, which I’m sure was accented by the fact the lead singer also played an electric violin and the banjo! The drummer was so adorable, so goofy and animated, here’s their myspace http://www.myspace.com/honeyhoneyband definitely worth checking out. If I hadn’t needed my cash to get out of the parking lot I might have bought their EP. They won me over very quickly. The lead singer was so endearing, but there most memorable song is called “Screw” It was a very sweet soft sounding song about how “I’m not using you, you just look like you need it” So good times.
Then it was Matt. The band came out and was getting the equipment set up and I saw this spiky head backstage, and my heart skipped a beat! Which was a little weird, but I knew it was him! Hurrah! He came onstage to loud applause and seemed like he was really having a lot of fun. They started the rocking with “To the Beat of Our Noisy Hearts” and “Gone” I really have to hand it to Matt, he is excellent at dealing with loud drunks, the crowd was eating out of his hand. At one point he asked the balcony how they were and to keep drinking because the “more you drink, the better we sound.” When he asked the middle of the balcony how they were the applause was intense and he said “If you’re sitting there, we sound like Led Zepplin.” Next came “Princess” which I love, but I was sad because he didn’t start off by playing “Jesse’s Girl”, since I have so many bootlegs of him doing that, it’s my favorite. But then just as I was getting over that small disappointment he put it in as a bridge/sing-a-long! He did the second verse as well so that more people could sing along, I loved it! Then they finished up “Princess.” He introduced “Come on Get Higher” saying how it was a song to try and steal a little of the sexiness that you get from Usher and Ricky Iglesias. I liked this song a litter better solo, I really got into it when he played it in Provo. Still, very, very good.
I believe he played “Falling Apart” next, which is excellent live, but is very lacking on the album. It was a this point I was sad that I can’t get the same thing from listening to his new album. I love almost all of those song, and have since before they had titles and finished lyrics, but getting that album was such a let down. It feels like all the emotion has just been sucked right out of the songs. It seems very overproduced to me, and since it took about 4 years for the album to come out, I wonder if that’s what happened. It makes me so sad, because these songs are heartbreaking and wonderful, but you don’t get that when you listen to the album, they sound very plain and lackluster and they aren’t! It’s crazy!
He followed that up with “All we Are” and told us that while he likes Denver, it’s not Salt Lake and we deserved a happy song and since he only has written 2 of those, they are very special. I love this song, which has been on TV a bit. I heard it on NCIS and I was so excited but Husband didn’t understand. That’s my Boy! He’s making it in the big time!
He introduced “Detroit Waves” as the song he wrote when he was battle rappin’ in the streets of Detroit. He also added a bit of “Kids in America” so that we wouldn’t have to deny ourselves the sing-a-long. It was super cool. This is one of my favorite new songs, which I’ve loved since the first time I heard it. But once again the album doesn’t live up to the intensity you get hearing him play it. You may think I’m just one of those people that just can’t appreciate the music if it’s not being played just for me, but I’m listening to songs from Matt’s last album right now and they are beautiful and poignant and that’s the reason I love Matt as much as I do, so it definitely makes me very sad to lose this connection with the new songs.

Then “Wedding Dress” I heart this song, although I liked it just a touch better when it was “Winter Dress” but it makes more sense this way I guess. He added some lyrics, I don’t know if it was a different song or just some new improve, I wanted to remember the lyrics, but now I can’t :(
Then of course the single that most people know “Car Crash” It’s been so fun to hear this on the radio, every time I get so excited that they are really playing Matt. He deserves it. Once again I’m a snob and like the early versions of this song where the chorus is a little different the best, but it’s a great song and should definitely make him famous or at least get people to buy that CD.
“Answering Machine” the standard closer. As he was telling people the song-a-long lyrics he told us “They don’t make any sense, but neither does REM… and I love them.” I think he added the love thing just because the Utahns would lynch him if he made fun of REM. But he does love REM as he will throw a little “Losing my Religion” into one of my favorite songs. It was fun and I decided that since I couldn’t really see through the she-males shaved head, that I would sing the whole song, not just mouth the words as I so politely did through the whole concert. Didn’t make a difference, but was a bit liberating. He announced he would be signing things back by the merch booth after his set and after Lifehouse played. I didn’t come to see Lifehouse, so I was a super friend and went and got Trish a new Matt shirt for her to wear, I hope it looks awesome on her (I’m sure it does) it had an answering machine on it! Get it? Ha ha! These two cute girls behind us, whom Trish had offered to trade places with since she was taller thanked me. I’m not sure why, they said “because you were here!” so for what that’s worth, I’ll take it.
I headed back to the booth which was stuck in a corner. Only one way in and one way out. There were so many girls waiting to talk to him! It was nuts and I had to ask someone I didn’t know to take my picture with him. I had him sign my “Slow but Speeding” EP which I figured was the neatest most rarest thing of his that I have, even though it’s not that neat.

I asked him if he had gotten used to being an opener again, since you know, I read his online journal, so I know the first show in Seattle, he had to really work to win over the crowd and it was a little strange for him after coming off his headlining tour. He said he had and it was getting better. He forgot my name again and I razzed him for it. I’m also such a nice person that I told him he was wearing the same shirt that he wore when he performed at the radio station here. You know, because I like to make rock stars feel stupid about thier clothing choices. I also decided to tell him that I’m a ridiculous fan girl that I found a belt buckle online to replace the one he broke, but it hadn’t arrived (oh, I’m going to kill me some online retailers) and that I “felt bad about it” and he looked maybe a mixture of surprise and fear, well, he didn’t show the fear he must have been feeling, but he seemed to think that my trying was really sweet. So the stranger took my picture and I tried to tell him that he had really won over the crowd, but all that would come out of my mouth was “All these people love you” so, yeah. My brain doesn’t work too good sometimes. So I left the surging mass of girls and was about to leave in triumph when I looked at the picture on my camera. I had my eyes closed. So I got my butt back into the line and tried not to be too pushy since I had already talked to him. After a bit I got to the front and said “Me again! I was blinking! Redo!” and some other stranger took my picture. He gave me a big hug (and I melted then I died) and I told him it was just like that time in Colorado where I just kept coming back again and again and again. And I had told him silly things like I loved him and that he was hot. I then rolled my eyes and said how long ago that was (3 years?) and he said how much we had both grown. It was super cute.

I decided to just hang out and listen to at least the first Lifehouse song, since I had paid all this money to get in the door. Matt was still signing and talking to people and then there was a group of older people (one of whom looked like a slimmer George Lucus!) that he stopped and talked to for a bit. He started to walk away and saw me and kinda waved and I waved bye to him, it was totally sweet. Then, I was trying to make my way out after the ridiculously long Lifehouse song which I didn’t recognize until the very end and Matt was also on his way out, there were two girls who were trying to talk to him and I was trying to get around them so I could leave (although to be honest, since Matt was right there, I wasn’t trying too hard) and then they asked me to take their picture with Matt. I agreed and the first picture was just a close up of his face since the picture screen on the camera was totally black due to the poor bar lighting at the show. But then I took another picture and everyone had their eyes open and it was really sweet. So I got to walk passed Matt on my way out and I didn’t even stop him to talk to him again. Mostly because he kept getting snagged by other people, but I didn’t stop and wait just to tell him the new things I had thought of since last time or all the things I wanted to tell him but forgot since he makes me so flustered. I just let him go. And hopefully he won’t be gone too long again and then I’ll make sure me and all my friends have tickets to that glorious occasion! Viva La Matt!

Not a bad picture, finally!

Oh Tori, You Came and you Found me a Black Swan

What can I say except wow. This was my second Tori show in 2 days and that's the most I've ever done in a row, usually I hit different areas on different legs of the tour, but this time the way things worked out, I got to see two shows in a row. With Tori doing the whole "dolls" thing this really helped to create two vastly different shows. The first in Salt Lake with Pip started off so intense and angry, and this show today in Boise, Clyde was intense but in a less threatening way. I want to go really in depth about both shows and what happened leading up to them.

Niki and I had a comedy of errors trying to get out the door. she forgot her pillow and the directions and I forgot the tickets! Luckily we had stopped for breakfast nearby when I remembered and we figured we could hit Niki's house on the way. It was a five hour drive where seeing the distant mountains that are just slightly dusted with snow was the most interesting part of our journey. Mostly the road between here and salt lake (blogging on the road! I love the digital age!) is flat, nothing wasteland not a lot out those are windows. It's a 5 hour drive, but Niki had brought Anasai Boys on audio CD for us to listen to and I think this really helped the time fly by. We headed straight to the venue to see if the meet 'n' greet was going to happen soon and when we got there there were maybe about 15 people standing behind the barriers. We figured since it was already after 3 we should stick it out even though it was bitter cold. We were not disappointed. Soon Smitty (tori's bodyguard) came out to tell us it would be just a few minutes. Niki and I decided since we met her yesterday, it would be nice to either observe (that's Niki) or chat with Ms Amos (that's me!) rather tahn get something signed. So since there were so few people there Tori was taking time with everyone and really having a bit of a chat with people. People were free to move to the side after talking with Tori and this was the first time I've seen Smitty so relaxed and looking like he was having a bit of fun too! almost. It came to my turn and I told Tori that since I had met her the night before that I didn't need anything signed but I did want to ask her a question. I told her that I was very intrigued with the concept of the different personas on this album but that as a new mother I was having a hard time being nurturing and being able to be the Aphrodite too. And since Tori had so many different hats to wear what was her secret. She told me that Santa (the Aphrodite Doll) has really helped her marriage. That being sensual doesn't have to be independent of being spiritual. The patrichary has shamed us into thinking we can't have both but as women deserve to have it all. She told me that Santa isn't just a sensual creature, but that she love fabric and texture and architecture and beauty and that we all deserve to feel beautiful. Santa isn't interested in talking about the war, she's more interested in having a moment (and here I totally thought that she was going to say makeover). She also said that Santa isn't the one who goes to playgroups and she's not the one who picks up Tash from school, because each doll and each aspect of ourselves has a time and a place. Santa likes to go out to dinner and be social, so she's out a lot with Husband, but not so much with Tash. She was so sweet and twee and so personal. Then Niki took our picture with her awesome new camera and I reminded Tori that I had requested Black Swan. She had that "oh yeah" look on her face and wrote it on her hand, she asked if this would be our last show and we said that it was, so she told us that she would see what she could do. I took a few more pictures of her with other people and then since we weren't all corralled like sheep, we decided we were done and we left to go hang out in our posh hotel room.

I felt that Clyde would come out tonight. The venue is beautiful, a concert hall used to classical music, I figured that Clyde would feel comfortable in that setting. I was right. Seeing shows opened by Pip and Clyde are two different experiences. Pip was all infectious anger but Clyde, is stoic, silently intense, preferring to let the songs speak for themselves. She came out with a black cloth over her eyes which she dropped in front of the piano. Our seats were just stage left off center and 3rd row. They could hardly have been better. Bouncing off Clouds was fun and Little Earthquakes was great to hear. Juarez which I don’t think is anyone’s favorite song, but it is very powerful. Upside Down was a great surprise for me, since I adore that song. Mary followed it and while this isn’t one of my favorites, I can appreciate getting 2 b-sides in a row. Beauty of Speed is a gorgeous song and the “colors changing” was nice with the different colored lights but not the “amazing lights” I had thought they would be. I guess they were so built up in my mind that they couldn’t live up. Clyde left and picked up her scarf as she went. I had heard that Clyde didn’t look much at the audience, but she didn’t seem shy last night, she looked at the audience as much as Tori normally does and while she didn’t seem cheerful at any point she didn’t look uncomfortable on the stage either. Costume change and then Big Wheel, which I must say, is really growing on me, since I didn’t care for it at first, but it could become as popular as one of her other singles. Fairytale was lovely, as Scarlet’s Walk is a the definitive road trip album and after being on the road for 5 hours that day it was very lovely to hear. And the boy whose picture Niki took for him had requested it, so I was excited to see what would happen for me. Tear in Your Hand was sort of weird in the middle since I'm so used to it being an encore, but anything from Earthquakes is good to hear.
When she started Northern Lad I was excited, but the improv about messing up and her boys helping her out and it being a Spud day was so cool. I was even happier to hear Putting the Damage On as any Pele is good Pele. I love this song more then Northern Lad, so it was a positive trade in my eyes. The improv was gorgeous and apparently similar to what she had performed in Houston. I’ll need to listen to it more in the bootleg. It said Coraline or maybe “call Rolene” a lot and something about Navajo, it reminded me of the last show she played in this theatre on the Scarlet’s Walk tour in 2003 and it was the day that we learned of the first women to die in the Iraq war, who also happened to be a Hopi Indian, perhaps Tori was reminded of this or maybe else brought it out, but that’s what I thought of. I now felt spoiled getting 2 improvs and this made up for the lack of improvs in the Salt lake show. What came next was also a repeat from the 2003 Boise show and that was Not the Red Baron which was heartbreakingly beautiful and poignant. But what happened next I was not prepared for. Seeing Tori in salt lake at the sound check I had asked if in Idaho, Black Swan could come and Tori’s expressions told me that she thought it was a plausible idea. At the meet’n’greet before the show I reminder about my request and she once again wrote it on her hand and asked if we’d be at any other show and I told her this was my last. So seeing as how this was the 2nd song of the 2 song solo time when she started the piano intro it sure sounded like Black Swan to me, but I didn’t want to get too excited just in case I was wrong, as piano intros can turn into something else quickly. I was not disappointed when those first notes rang out for Black Swan I started to tear up. This song reminds me of when my husband was in Iraq. I would wait for him to call me everyday, so whenever I hear “did Eric call, by the way” it brings it all back. I’ve been to Tori shows on many tours and while there have been touching moments where I’ve teared up, I’ve never really cried, maybe shed a tear, but I full on cried for a minute. It really meant something to me those Tori was willing to play a song, just because I wanted to hear it and just because it would mean something to me. Thinking about it now makes the tears come to my eyes. This is why I’m still a fan almost a decade and half later, because even though she’s a superstar now and has people fawning all over her and her every whim, she hasn’t forgotten the people that buy her records and she still gives the fans, the “little people” the respect that we deserve. This is moment I will treasure even when I’m old and gray. Coming off that high was Black Dove which does always seem to go with Black Swan. Birds of a feather I suppose. Bliss was rocking and of course Code Red, which while growing more on me, isn’t really hitting home for me. Maybe first base. Maybe. Rushed the stage and our amazing 3rd row seats turned into being almost right against the stage. No one was pushy or rude, at least near me, so that was great that we could all be polite to each other. Some people are saying that Cornflake Girl and Precious Things are getting old. I can see that if you’re going to every show. You hear it so many times, but most people only see one, maybe two shows. Those people want to hear the hits. I’m really struck by how much fun Tori still has with them every night. She wasn’t phoning in these standards, she was having a good old time, and I think it has to do with the skill that these songs take. She’s rocking that piano for Precious and Cornflake and while these songs are probably what make the shows seem more like an actual job than just awesome fun, she still finds a way to enjoy them and I think she feeds off how the people respond to it.
I was thrilled to hear Concertina as this is my favorite off of Venus and was impressed to see how much Venus made it into tonight’s show, it’s an album I tend to forget but I think I’ll be pulling out again and giving it a whirl. Finished off with Hey Jupiter of course. During this song and through out the whole set I noticed that Tori skipped whatever high parts she could get away with. Maybe it’s because this was her 3rd night in row performing and she was tired or maybe she was holding back for some reason and while I missed those high parts I don’t think it took too much away from the evening. I have to put this as my all-time favorite show because of the T & Bo section solely. Niki and I left on a high and though we were really tired we couldn’t get to sleep for a while. Driving home we listened to a lot of Tori and I think we are both really grateful that we choose to go to Boise and see this amazing show.

Here a Pip and There a Tori

I knew that Pip would be opening because of the sound check but I guessed as much because she’s the doll that hasn’t been out for a while. Since this wasn’t a Ticketmaster venue, there were no VIP tickets, but the radio station did a giveaway for basically the same thing. We got to listen to 3 songs and then have her sign one item and then group photos, no personal photos, which was rather disappointing. For the actual sound check before we were let back I heard Big Wheel, Smokey Joe, Heart of Gold, Hey Jupiter, Digital Ghost and I swear I heard Concertina, which made me excited since I love that song, but she didn’t come out for the show.
For the fan “sound check” she played Almost Rosey with the band and then a solo Leather. After we clapped she thanked us and told us basically that this was a practice and she needed to see how her monitors sounded with and without the band and these s may or may not come out to play during the show. She pulled out a piece of paper and from what I could see from the reflections on the Bosey they were lyrics, I was super excited. We got to hear Little Drummer Boy. It was truly a great start for our holiday season. We were walked off behind the stage and told to stand in a line and be quiet because they were going to be recording a few songs. From the backstage area we heard Little Drummer Boy again and also Leather, so maybe this will be on a new holiday CD? We all got to spend a few minutes with Tori and it was amazing to me that once again she was so personable and really friendly. She was wearing a gorgeous black beaded blouse and a pencil black skirt with knee high black boots and she looked great and it made me sad that she would change into the sequined jumpsuit later. I spoke with her and was a blithering idiot, but that lady, she’s nice to everyone. I had brought my book to the Piano: Collection because it’s beautiful and I love it. This was actually a present to myself last year after Hayley was born, so looking through the book reminds me of those early days. I mentioned that to Tori and kind of hoped she would pickup on the fact that I was mentioning my little on purpose as I had brought some photos with me just in case. Which sounds weird except that when we met Tori backstage in ’02 some showed her pictures of her baby and Tori pulled out pictures of Tash, but I guess we can’t have everything. Tori asked me if I played (the piano) and I told her a little, I felt nervous since I’m kind of crap at it. Then I told her that the way I learned to play was on the song “Here. in my Head” which I have told her before but we’re not buds or anything, so I doubt that she remembers that (or me!). I gave her a piece of prose that I had written that was very Scarlet inspired and hopefully she read it, but she’s busy. It was less then a page! Come on! I then asked if she could play “Black Swan” in Boise and she definitely looked like she would really consider it. I know she hadn’t played it this tour yet and my asking for random b-sides usually means that no, she wont’ play that, but she wrote it on her hand and then it was Niki’s turn to talk to her. Niki had her sign Beekeeper for our friend, so Niki is really unselfish and she’s going to get lots of good karma.
On to the actual show!
Niki wasn’t feeling well and wanted to be in tip top shape for our road trip the next day, so in an effort to spread more good cheer, she declined the free seat to the show with me and I got to enjoy the show with my adorable little friend Magen. We suck our cameras in to take some video and saw that our free seats were not crap, but actually fairly awesome. Pip opened and the raw energy from her was palpable. So aggressive and a wonderful way to start the show. We got to start out in full throttle. Standing and singing for most of her delivery of Cruel. She was in her green dress with her rubber leggings and looked amazing. I don’t know how, but those dolls all look about 25, so Tori must be eating her greens. Kneeling for Fat and then she did some push ups? It was kind of awesome but weird, but that Pip I guess. Teenage Hustling was spot on and the Waitress. I adore the “hang ten honey” bridge more than the rest of the song, so getting to hear it live again was a dream come true. Magen was loving how rockin’ the show was, lots of dancing and big cheers when she recognized songs. She had a great time sing along too.
Costume change and the boys jammed. A lot of people were up and dancing and grooving and it was a lot of fun. I was a bit nervous about it, since I’m not a fan of the Professional remix, but it was good. It was time to get out all the wiggles for those of us who can’t sit still too long.
She came back out in the gold jumpsuit, that we’re all getting used to, but I miss the really flowy or fun things she used to wear. Big Wheel of course, but it was lovely, better than the album and fun for the audience too! I think some people weren’t aware of the “don’t you forget” sing along but they picked it right up from those that knew the drill.
Caught a Lite Sneeze is a personal favorite so that was a highlight for me, but I miss the harpsichord and the switching keyboards for the bridge, but we can’t have it all (but I’m pretty sure one of those fancy keyboards could sound like a harpsichord, I’m just sayin') It was fun seeing when people started to recognize Crucify and Magen was in heaven when she played this.
She didn’t talk much, just once before introducing the band. She said she had a wonderful day and that she was so happy that she could play for us. That we were “magical” people. I think this is probably in reference to the auctioned off piano lesson that helped needy children in Utah. The generous person who won donated the lesson to one of these under-privileged kids. How un-selfish can you be considering the final price was $9,000! She played Mother and it was stunning. I wish I could have better concentrated as the loud drunk s were in my section and between them and the people yelling at them to shut up, it was hard to enjoy, but I managed. Then the lovely Merman. So heartbreakingly beautiful and very emotional, which once again was almost perfect due to the screaming. I’m trying to be all Zen and think that everyone has the right to enjoy the concert in their own way, but it was annoying. Sorry. I was a little sad about not getting an improv, since I’ve been hearing such good things about the improvs but oh well.
Digital Ghost was very sweet and it’s really so much better live, even though I do like the album version. She played Amber waves which was a disappointment for me, it’s the once track on Scarlet that I don’t listen to. It is better live, but not enough to redeem it. Father Lucifer was something I was hoping for. In Utah we usually get this song and God (for some reason, I don’t get it) but I still love it and the Steve McQueen ending is probably my favorite part of any song ever. It’s up there for me.
I was hoping that hearing Code Red live would help me like it since everyone says that hearing it live is such a treat. Meh, I could do without it, but it is fairly rocking and I could wiggle to it. She started Pretty Good Year and I actually squealed like a little . I wasn’t expecting that and I love the song. I also love that my friend jumped when she got to the “hey what’s it gonna take” part because she wasn’t expecting it to start rocking. She sang the “pretty she is” line, she probably always does now, but I love hearing it. Hey Jupiter to close, and while I was sad to see tori go, it was time. The concert was amazing, it was everything that I could have hoped, Tori was full of energy and was very playful, although she did seem to stay more to her lower register while singing, but she just could have been in a growly mood. She didn’t really play too much stuff from the new album which is fine, I love hearing the back catalog, but I was hoping for more off of Scarlet, and Beekeeper album was noticeably absent, but that’s not a bad thing. But really with so much from Earthquakes and Pink and even one Pele song, I am definitely happy. After the show Magen and I walked to our cars and listened to the videos from our little cameras before calling it a good night.