Success in spite of Adversity: A Concert Review by Gonar
As I have mentioned to you earlier, dear readers, I often read the internet magazine Slate. A few weeks ago on November 17th, I was perusing Slate and came across this linked review by Jody Rosen of a new album. The album is Joanna Newsom's Ys. Being out of the new American music scene physically, mentally and spiritually, I thought, "Hmmm, sounds pretty interesting," and, this being the dark time of the year, I needed what Rosen termed "an enchanted, terrible Neverland, a world to get lost in." Intrigued by what I read, I procured said album and a few of Joanna Newsom's older works like her preceding album, The Milk-Eyed Mender. So, I started listening to these novel creations, and wow, I was hooked. Mesmerized would be a better term. A classically-trained harpist, Joanna Newsom either plays harp or keyboard and sings in an style reminding me of somewhere between old Appalachian bluegrass and a medieval troubadour. Actually, after seeing a picture of her, I could imagine this long-haired pixie singing her elfen verse in the halls of Rivendell, with perhaps a summer tour of the Shire for good measure. "Next week at the Prancing Pony in Bree - Joanna Newsom!" In any case, I was hooked, line and sinker included, and can't wait for her next European tour.
That brings me to last Friday. Rambling through the internet on a late Friday afternoon before my vacation (more on that, later), I came across the fact that Joanna Newsom would be playing in Minneapolis that evening. Minneapolis = Aquaburg, home of Gonar, Gatekeeper to the Outer Galaxy! My mind raced--did he already have tickets? If not, let's send him a quick email at work to see if he was going to the show.
Sent at 5:02 p.m. CET, Friday, 08.12.2006:
Gonar,
Achtung! You have an outstanding musical opportunity this evening, if my information is correct. Joanna Newsom is playing the 400 Bar in Aquaburg. I have listened to her music of late, including her new album, Ys, and it is just plain mesmerizing, weird and funky like children's songs for grown-ups. This is really an opportunity that should not be missed. The show starts at 6:00 p.m.
I know it is short notice, but I wouldn't steer you wrong on this. It is a must-see event, repeat a must-see event. Did I make that clear? Perhaps you have tickets already. If not, here is the link.
http://www.ticketweb.com/user/?region=mn&query=schedule&venue=400bar
Good luck, and please send a report.
DM
BTW, Laibach has a Munich show next Thursday. I'm picking up tickets tomorrow. Their new album is "Volk".
At 5:11 p.m. CET, Gonar sent the following response:
I know you will find the show entrancing. I just know it as I keep listening to the albums. I see she is coming to England in January, but I haven't seen shows for the continent, yet. Good luck, and please submit a review if you can.
Good luck and have a pleasant weekend,
DM
Then, at 6:01 p.m. CET, I got the bad news from Aquaburg. I didn't see this message, however, until Saturday morning, European time.
That's too bad. I came across the show info purely by circumstance. Well, perhaps you had luck in line. As Stingray always said, you can always find a way to get in to the show.
Let me know if you got lucky.
Then, almost exactly a day later after hearing the bad news, I got the following reply at 5:59 p.m. CET:
Aye, laddie! And I been speakin' like a
pirate ever since! A review of the evening
will follow in a timely manner!
Shiver me timbers!
Gonar
AWESOME! SIMPLY AWESOME! was my reply to Gonar, and it truly is a bit of wisdom from Stingray, the benevolent dictator, who once told me, "You can always find a way to get a ticket to any show." And so, without further ado, here is the Gonar's review of the Joanna Newsom concert. Enjoy!
DM,
I arrived at the 400 Bar at around 9:45 with no plan in mind and no ticket for a sold-out show, to find a line that stretched for a solid block-and-a-half from the front door. There was a sign on the door that the show was actually not sold out; I figured that perhaps some unclaimed promotional tickets were being sold, but the line was long and forboding. Thinking this did not neccesarily look good but always optimistic, I began the humbling trudge down the line, asking "extra ticket? Anybody got an extra ticket?" to which the response is usually a blank stare and the occasional shake of the head. It's kind of the same expression you see on cows faces when you moo at them from your car as you're driving by. That's okay folks, keep chewing your cud and ignore me, I'm just an idiot who couldn't get his shit together in time to make it to the box office. Whatever. As I got farther down the line people began asking me if I was trying to sell a ticket, because they needed some. Not a good sign at all, to find dozens of non-ticket holders in front of you at a show that is already looking to sell out fast. After going up and down the entire line three times I started getting a little desperate and stood up on a retaining wall next to the sidewalk, took a deep breath and shouted "Excuse me, can I have your attention, did anyone here overestimate the number of friends they have when they bought tickets, and end up with an extra ticket for the show?" About fifty people looked up at me in dismay, and one guy in the back of the crowd sheepishly raised his hand, and said "yeah, here, I have an extra".
Cool. The face value was $12. An interesting aside here. Ticket scalping is illegal in the state of Minnesota, and people seem to be dreadfully fearful of getting caught. NOBODY and I mean nobody EVER tries to raise a price on a show ticket. It's odd, after making so much money in Iowa by buying tickets and scalping them to guys in my dorm. I only had change to give him $11 or $15, so he took the $11 and he called it even. So I not only got in, I got in cheaper. Hee hee! I had my ticket, got in line, and as it was coming up on the ten o'clock door time I figured we'd by in soon.
Wrong. For some reason, probably some whimsy of the band, the doors didn't open on time. Not even close. Which brings up a couple other things about living in Minnesota. One, it's just too damn cold most of the time. Last night was no exception. It wasn't terrible, probably in the low twenties with some breeze, but when you're standing outside and not moving it starts to get into your bones. Two, people here are just too goddamn polite. This sounds like an unusual thing to complain about, but after a while it gets truly tiresome that you can't get an honest opinion from people half the time. The "Minnesota nice" that people talk about is far from being a matter of friendliness - in fact, the vast majority of friends I've made since I've moved here are also transplants - but it's a matter of just not wanting to make anybody mad. So last night while hundreds and hundreds of people waited in line as the doors didn't open, and didn't open, and didn't open, nobody complained. Sure, there were some comments quietly made amongst those in line but nobody marched up to the door and opened up a big can of whoop-ass, which is what needs to happen when you lock hundreds of people out in the cold for an extra hour. We earned the right to have a full-blown riot, and never got it. Damn!! Now, I'm not an impatient person. I've waited until 3 in the morning for a band to come out. Granted, that was Prince and the show was during a party at his studio, but that's just it. Joanna Newsom, you're playing the 400 Bar. You're not Prince. Start your goddamn shows on time, especially when you're whole audience is freezing their asses off out in the cold. Got it?
11:20 Got inside. Went straight to the bar and ordered a whisky cobbler (1&1/2 oz scotch, 1/2 oz brandy, 1/2 oz triple sec) to bring with me to my spot, wherever I was destined to stand until closing time. I ended up about halfway back. I should probably explain the 400 Bar. It is named for its address, 400 Cedar Avenue, and has been around as long as I can remember, so at least since the early 80s. At that time it was in what was one old storefront, the building is probably turn-of-the-century vintage. It faces an oblique street which makes it angled on one end, where the stage is. Around 1991 they bought the store next door, tore the wall down, which nearly tripled the space. This is good, because the old 400 was tiny, probably 70 feet by 20 feet. Now it's the same size in that half, where the bar is along with some booths, but the new half where the stage is is probably 25 feet by 100 feet deep, counting the stage which is at the narrow end. Because it's so long, it's still not the best place to see a band, but they do bring in some interesting acts.
It has been 12 and a half years since I've been to the 400 Bar. Last time I can think of that I was there was June 3rd, 1994. It was the night that Pleasure (now Semisonic) played along with the Delilahs, the Honeydogs, and a couple other local bands. It was a legendary night. The Honeydogs were big locally, Pleasure was pulling together from the ashes of Trip Shakespeare, and the Delilahs had just gotten a record contract. They recorded their performance that night and put one of their songs on their debut album. We have it; if I listen real close I can hear myself whooping it up in the background. I think. There was a lot of whooping and hollering going on. Wow, it does not seem like twelve years ago.
The 400 has changed some since 1994 but not much. The tin-type ceiling is still black, the walls are red now and covered with some memorabilia like a Yo-La-Tengo drum head, some old guitar, some original paintings over the bar that were interesting. Somebody's smashed Stratocaster is autographed and in a plexiglass frame. What obviously stands out the most are the three records on the wall, the gold and platinum kind. They are all from Soul Asylum, and were presented to Bill Sieverson who I think owns the place. 400 Bar is the place where Soul Asylum really got their start and hung out a lot.
So, given the folk-punk scene that has defined the 400 for decades, it was really odd to walk in there last night and see this massive harp sitting in the middle of the stage. We had to politely suffer through the warm-up act first, an acoustic guitarist named Willaim Callahan. While he kind of sounded like a cross between Billy Bragg, Bruce Cockburn and Peter Murphy, I don't think he really had the compelling qualities of any of them. He had Bragg's simplicity and drive instrumentally, but with Cockburn's acoustic sensibilities. Lyrically he was pretty melencholy and dark. I was ready for him to be done. And he finally was by about 12:15 or so. Finally, about 12:30, a floodlight bathes the center of the stage, the harp, actually, in a beautiful amber light. This was the extent of their "light show", but doing anything fancy in the 400 would seem out of place. It made the harp glow like molten gold, though. Just beautiful. Joanna came out in a gold colored dress and with her blonde hair in the amber light made a very warm and attractive scene. She's 24 and looks a lot younger. If I was in my twenties as well I probably would find her quite hot.
She came out alone and sat at the harp, greeted the audience and began playing right away. Her first song was "Bridges and Balloons", and it was captivating right away. Her style is, because she's on a harp of course, characterized by lots of arpeggios and such. But she also incorporates a lot of rhythm and redundancy that makes the harp sound almost like it's echoing or on a delay. That effect quickly becomes very hypnotic. And then there's her voice. It's very eccentric sounding, and I can only oddly describe as sounding sort of like a cross between a little girl and a pirate. It was much less so when she spoke, but even though she's from northern California (according to Wikipedia) she does speak with a touch of what sounds like an accent of some kind.
And she's one hell of a lyricist. I mean, she's one hell of a lyricist! The words and phrases she came up with in her music are just great, very ornamental and pretty. I'd say at least 99% of lyrics, once you take away the music, are just really bad poetry. Newsom's is clearly an exception to this. Here is an excerpt from "Emily" courtesy of my favorite lyrics website, www.sing365.com;
And, Emily - I saw you last night by the river
I dreamed you were skipping little stones across the surface of the water
Frowning at the angle where they were lost, and slipped under forever,
In a mud-cloud, mica-spangled, like the sky'd been breathing on a mirror
Anyhow - I sat by your side, by the water
You taught me the names of the stars overhead that I wrote down in my ledger
Though all I knew of the rote universe were those pleiades loosed in december
I promised you I‘d set them to verse so I'd always remember
That the meteorite is a source of the light
And the meteor's just what we see
And the meteoroid is a stone that's devoid of the fire that propelled it to thee
And the meteorite's just what causes the light
And the meteor's how it's perceived
And the meteoroid's a bone thrown from the void that lies quiet in offering to thee
-------------------------------------
Joanna never left her harp during the whole show. After the third song her band came out, a backup ensemble that consisted of four skinny guys and one not-so-skinny woman, all of whom could easily be high-school theater club rejects judging from their physiques, hairstyles and general demeanor. Two guys played a variety of fretted instruments with odd names. The woman sang on about three songs and played the glockenspiel on another, but truly for most of the show she just sat contentedly. She had fairly decent jugs so I'm okay with her role. The skinny and serious-looking drummer played some crash cymbals and two giant floor toms with mallets and occasionally brushes. The last guy played accordian throughout and the saw on the last song.
I wish I could give more details about what songs she played and things like that, but having no familiarity with her whatsoever before the show makes it hard to do that. She played about five more songs with the band, and I believe it was her new album in entirety. While five songs doesn't sound like much, note that they are really, really long, sometimes over fifteen minutes for one song. In addition, I have to say it was one of the most dynamic shows I've seen. She would be quitely paying her harp for a long time, five minutes or more, while the band just sat there, but then they would come booming in with this orchestral arrangement but on these folk instruments. Just before playing her last song she did mention that the arrangements for the instruments were inspired by the orchastral arrangements used on the album, so you can sort of get an idea of what it sounded like.
Nobody would talk while she played. At all. Only at the Sigur Ros show I saw last spring have I seen an audience to engaged in listening to the music. The last song ended with a long decresendo, the music very, very slowly dying out to nothing. There was not a sound from the audience until it was so quiet you could hear a pin drop in the bar. Then she quietly said a thank you and the whole place erupted in to applause. The show ended right at 2 a.m. No encore. Lights came up and they kicked us out. Once back on the sidwalk outside I bummed a smoke off some guy by offering to buy it (works every single time) and chatted a bit. He had gone to both shows (there was one at 6:30 as well) and was quite happy with how he spent his day. Then I headed to the car, drove home went to bed slept late. Not a bad Friday night at all except for the 10pm to 11pm part, and I think I'll have to go out and buy that new album of hers.
DM, thanks for the tip. It was an excellent call.
Gonar, GOTOG
And thanks so much to you, Gonar, for attending the show and sending a review to us here at Festung Europa! I knew you would enjoy the experience.
That brings me to last Friday. Rambling through the internet on a late Friday afternoon before my vacation (more on that, later), I came across the fact that Joanna Newsom would be playing in Minneapolis that evening. Minneapolis = Aquaburg, home of Gonar, Gatekeeper to the Outer Galaxy! My mind raced--did he already have tickets? If not, let's send him a quick email at work to see if he was going to the show.
Sent at 5:02 p.m. CET, Friday, 08.12.2006:
Gonar,
Achtung! You have an outstanding musical opportunity this evening, if my information is correct. Joanna Newsom is playing the 400 Bar in Aquaburg. I have listened to her music of late, including her new album, Ys, and it is just plain mesmerizing, weird and funky like children's songs for grown-ups. This is really an opportunity that should not be missed. The show starts at 6:00 p.m.
I know it is short notice, but I wouldn't steer you wrong on this. It is a must-see event, repeat a must-see event. Did I make that clear? Perhaps you have tickets already. If not, here is the link.
http://www.ticketweb.com/user/?region=mn&query=schedule&venue=400bar
Good luck, and please send a report.
DM
BTW, Laibach has a Munich show next Thursday. I'm picking up tickets tomorrow. Their new album is "Volk".
At 5:11 p.m. CET, Gonar sent the following response:
You're enthusiasm is pretty high here and has got meAt 5:15 p.m. CET, I replied (in haste, I might add, as my vacation was starting!) to Gonar:
interested. And I haven't been to the 400 Bar in
years and years. I'll see about tonight and try to
make it.
Gonar
I know you will find the show entrancing. I just know it as I keep listening to the albums. I see she is coming to England in January, but I haven't seen shows for the continent, yet. Good luck, and please submit a review if you can.
Good luck and have a pleasant weekend,
DM
Then, at 6:01 p.m. CET, I got the bad news from Aquaburg. I didn't see this message, however, until Saturday morning, European time.
I just called the 400 Bar and the guy saidSo it didn't look good, gentle reader. I typed off this missive to Gonar, in the hope that he may have indeed gotten in. The wisdom of an old friend was included:
it's sold out. I need more notice for the
good shows! Perhaps I'll head down around
9:30 and see if I can pick up a ticket from
someone in line.
That's too bad. I came across the show info purely by circumstance. Well, perhaps you had luck in line. As Stingray always said, you can always find a way to get in to the show.
Let me know if you got lucky.
Then, almost exactly a day later after hearing the bad news, I got the following reply at 5:59 p.m. CET:
Aye, laddie! And I been speakin' like a
pirate ever since! A review of the evening
will follow in a timely manner!
Shiver me timbers!
Gonar
AWESOME! SIMPLY AWESOME! was my reply to Gonar, and it truly is a bit of wisdom from Stingray, the benevolent dictator, who once told me, "You can always find a way to get a ticket to any show." And so, without further ado, here is the Gonar's review of the Joanna Newsom concert. Enjoy!
DM,
I arrived at the 400 Bar at around 9:45 with no plan in mind and no ticket for a sold-out show, to find a line that stretched for a solid block-and-a-half from the front door. There was a sign on the door that the show was actually not sold out; I figured that perhaps some unclaimed promotional tickets were being sold, but the line was long and forboding. Thinking this did not neccesarily look good but always optimistic, I began the humbling trudge down the line, asking "extra ticket? Anybody got an extra ticket?" to which the response is usually a blank stare and the occasional shake of the head. It's kind of the same expression you see on cows faces when you moo at them from your car as you're driving by. That's okay folks, keep chewing your cud and ignore me, I'm just an idiot who couldn't get his shit together in time to make it to the box office. Whatever. As I got farther down the line people began asking me if I was trying to sell a ticket, because they needed some. Not a good sign at all, to find dozens of non-ticket holders in front of you at a show that is already looking to sell out fast. After going up and down the entire line three times I started getting a little desperate and stood up on a retaining wall next to the sidewalk, took a deep breath and shouted "Excuse me, can I have your attention, did anyone here overestimate the number of friends they have when they bought tickets, and end up with an extra ticket for the show?" About fifty people looked up at me in dismay, and one guy in the back of the crowd sheepishly raised his hand, and said "yeah, here, I have an extra".
Cool. The face value was $12. An interesting aside here. Ticket scalping is illegal in the state of Minnesota, and people seem to be dreadfully fearful of getting caught. NOBODY and I mean nobody EVER tries to raise a price on a show ticket. It's odd, after making so much money in Iowa by buying tickets and scalping them to guys in my dorm. I only had change to give him $11 or $15, so he took the $11 and he called it even. So I not only got in, I got in cheaper. Hee hee! I had my ticket, got in line, and as it was coming up on the ten o'clock door time I figured we'd by in soon.
Wrong. For some reason, probably some whimsy of the band, the doors didn't open on time. Not even close. Which brings up a couple other things about living in Minnesota. One, it's just too damn cold most of the time. Last night was no exception. It wasn't terrible, probably in the low twenties with some breeze, but when you're standing outside and not moving it starts to get into your bones. Two, people here are just too goddamn polite. This sounds like an unusual thing to complain about, but after a while it gets truly tiresome that you can't get an honest opinion from people half the time. The "Minnesota nice" that people talk about is far from being a matter of friendliness - in fact, the vast majority of friends I've made since I've moved here are also transplants - but it's a matter of just not wanting to make anybody mad. So last night while hundreds and hundreds of people waited in line as the doors didn't open, and didn't open, and didn't open, nobody complained. Sure, there were some comments quietly made amongst those in line but nobody marched up to the door and opened up a big can of whoop-ass, which is what needs to happen when you lock hundreds of people out in the cold for an extra hour. We earned the right to have a full-blown riot, and never got it. Damn!! Now, I'm not an impatient person. I've waited until 3 in the morning for a band to come out. Granted, that was Prince and the show was during a party at his studio, but that's just it. Joanna Newsom, you're playing the 400 Bar. You're not Prince. Start your goddamn shows on time, especially when you're whole audience is freezing their asses off out in the cold. Got it?
11:20 Got inside. Went straight to the bar and ordered a whisky cobbler (1&1/2 oz scotch, 1/2 oz brandy, 1/2 oz triple sec) to bring with me to my spot, wherever I was destined to stand until closing time. I ended up about halfway back. I should probably explain the 400 Bar. It is named for its address, 400 Cedar Avenue, and has been around as long as I can remember, so at least since the early 80s. At that time it was in what was one old storefront, the building is probably turn-of-the-century vintage. It faces an oblique street which makes it angled on one end, where the stage is. Around 1991 they bought the store next door, tore the wall down, which nearly tripled the space. This is good, because the old 400 was tiny, probably 70 feet by 20 feet. Now it's the same size in that half, where the bar is along with some booths, but the new half where the stage is is probably 25 feet by 100 feet deep, counting the stage which is at the narrow end. Because it's so long, it's still not the best place to see a band, but they do bring in some interesting acts.
It has been 12 and a half years since I've been to the 400 Bar. Last time I can think of that I was there was June 3rd, 1994. It was the night that Pleasure (now Semisonic) played along with the Delilahs, the Honeydogs, and a couple other local bands. It was a legendary night. The Honeydogs were big locally, Pleasure was pulling together from the ashes of Trip Shakespeare, and the Delilahs had just gotten a record contract. They recorded their performance that night and put one of their songs on their debut album. We have it; if I listen real close I can hear myself whooping it up in the background. I think. There was a lot of whooping and hollering going on. Wow, it does not seem like twelve years ago.
The 400 has changed some since 1994 but not much. The tin-type ceiling is still black, the walls are red now and covered with some memorabilia like a Yo-La-Tengo drum head, some old guitar, some original paintings over the bar that were interesting. Somebody's smashed Stratocaster is autographed and in a plexiglass frame. What obviously stands out the most are the three records on the wall, the gold and platinum kind. They are all from Soul Asylum, and were presented to Bill Sieverson who I think owns the place. 400 Bar is the place where Soul Asylum really got their start and hung out a lot.
So, given the folk-punk scene that has defined the 400 for decades, it was really odd to walk in there last night and see this massive harp sitting in the middle of the stage. We had to politely suffer through the warm-up act first, an acoustic guitarist named Willaim Callahan. While he kind of sounded like a cross between Billy Bragg, Bruce Cockburn and Peter Murphy, I don't think he really had the compelling qualities of any of them. He had Bragg's simplicity and drive instrumentally, but with Cockburn's acoustic sensibilities. Lyrically he was pretty melencholy and dark. I was ready for him to be done. And he finally was by about 12:15 or so. Finally, about 12:30, a floodlight bathes the center of the stage, the harp, actually, in a beautiful amber light. This was the extent of their "light show", but doing anything fancy in the 400 would seem out of place. It made the harp glow like molten gold, though. Just beautiful. Joanna came out in a gold colored dress and with her blonde hair in the amber light made a very warm and attractive scene. She's 24 and looks a lot younger. If I was in my twenties as well I probably would find her quite hot.
She came out alone and sat at the harp, greeted the audience and began playing right away. Her first song was "Bridges and Balloons", and it was captivating right away. Her style is, because she's on a harp of course, characterized by lots of arpeggios and such. But she also incorporates a lot of rhythm and redundancy that makes the harp sound almost like it's echoing or on a delay. That effect quickly becomes very hypnotic. And then there's her voice. It's very eccentric sounding, and I can only oddly describe as sounding sort of like a cross between a little girl and a pirate. It was much less so when she spoke, but even though she's from northern California (according to Wikipedia) she does speak with a touch of what sounds like an accent of some kind.
And she's one hell of a lyricist. I mean, she's one hell of a lyricist! The words and phrases she came up with in her music are just great, very ornamental and pretty. I'd say at least 99% of lyrics, once you take away the music, are just really bad poetry. Newsom's is clearly an exception to this. Here is an excerpt from "Emily" courtesy of my favorite lyrics website, www.sing365.com;
And, Emily - I saw you last night by the river
I dreamed you were skipping little stones across the surface of the water
Frowning at the angle where they were lost, and slipped under forever,
In a mud-cloud, mica-spangled, like the sky'd been breathing on a mirror
Anyhow - I sat by your side, by the water
You taught me the names of the stars overhead that I wrote down in my ledger
Though all I knew of the rote universe were those pleiades loosed in december
I promised you I‘d set them to verse so I'd always remember
That the meteorite is a source of the light
And the meteor's just what we see
And the meteoroid is a stone that's devoid of the fire that propelled it to thee
And the meteorite's just what causes the light
And the meteor's how it's perceived
And the meteoroid's a bone thrown from the void that lies quiet in offering to thee
-------------------------------------
Joanna never left her harp during the whole show. After the third song her band came out, a backup ensemble that consisted of four skinny guys and one not-so-skinny woman, all of whom could easily be high-school theater club rejects judging from their physiques, hairstyles and general demeanor. Two guys played a variety of fretted instruments with odd names. The woman sang on about three songs and played the glockenspiel on another, but truly for most of the show she just sat contentedly. She had fairly decent jugs so I'm okay with her role. The skinny and serious-looking drummer played some crash cymbals and two giant floor toms with mallets and occasionally brushes. The last guy played accordian throughout and the saw on the last song.
I wish I could give more details about what songs she played and things like that, but having no familiarity with her whatsoever before the show makes it hard to do that. She played about five more songs with the band, and I believe it was her new album in entirety. While five songs doesn't sound like much, note that they are really, really long, sometimes over fifteen minutes for one song. In addition, I have to say it was one of the most dynamic shows I've seen. She would be quitely paying her harp for a long time, five minutes or more, while the band just sat there, but then they would come booming in with this orchestral arrangement but on these folk instruments. Just before playing her last song she did mention that the arrangements for the instruments were inspired by the orchastral arrangements used on the album, so you can sort of get an idea of what it sounded like.
Nobody would talk while she played. At all. Only at the Sigur Ros show I saw last spring have I seen an audience to engaged in listening to the music. The last song ended with a long decresendo, the music very, very slowly dying out to nothing. There was not a sound from the audience until it was so quiet you could hear a pin drop in the bar. Then she quietly said a thank you and the whole place erupted in to applause. The show ended right at 2 a.m. No encore. Lights came up and they kicked us out. Once back on the sidwalk outside I bummed a smoke off some guy by offering to buy it (works every single time) and chatted a bit. He had gone to both shows (there was one at 6:30 as well) and was quite happy with how he spent his day. Then I headed to the car, drove home went to bed slept late. Not a bad Friday night at all except for the 10pm to 11pm part, and I think I'll have to go out and buy that new album of hers.
DM, thanks for the tip. It was an excellent call.
Gonar, GOTOG
And thanks so much to you, Gonar, for attending the show and sending a review to us here at Festung Europa! I knew you would enjoy the experience.
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