First of all, I'm slowly making my way through my blogroll and getting caught up on everyone's blog, so don't be surprised when I flood your last couple weeks' posts with my pithy comments, darlings.
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The concert Friday night was fantastic. I'm so glad I planned in advance to miss the headlining act utterly, because a) I'm no fan of Spoon b) I got to leave at 10pm c) I got home by 10:30 and though I was tired, it was a far cry from dragging home sweaty and smoky after a concert that ended at 1:45am. [ew, gettin' old. eek!]
OK, several of you have said you've liked the musicians you've discovered through my blog, and I really really rilly hope you'll love Emma Pollock who is as genuinely lovely as her music is clever.
Adrenaline Rush:
This song, Acid Test, was the most well-received of her set Friday night. I thought the audience in general was pretty rude and disengaged during Emma's and TNP's sets on Friday night. This was largely a drab, emo crowd who clearly had little patience for anything other than the headliner, who in my opinion was artistically excelled by both opening acts. Oh, and I will go on about this topic: remember how I said the audience at Gogol Bordello was the most interesting and lively I've ever seen? This audience was the polar opposite of that audience. Underwhelming.
Anyway, Emma opened the show, and only a handful of people were already in the venue, and the audience clapped politely after all her numbers, but generally seemed under-energized. Emma took a swig of a pint of Stella Artois and said they were all from Glasgow and that they called Stella Artois "wife beater" and did we call it that here? I think no one responded, and she really didn't chat between songs after that. Her set was superb, though, technically, and her melodic structure is refreshing, and it was great to hear her live.
The second opening act was The New Pornographers, and although I know Barbara will be appalled, the only real reason I wanted to see them was to hear Neko Case sing, if only briefly. Neko's voice is like Phlegmmy-nip - listening to her sing, I could probably agree to just about anything. At one point, the lead male singer said "We're from Calgary" and the audience shuffled, and Neko said "We live in igloos. We eat pemmican." The audience practially yawned. Pearls before swine. Anyway, on TNP's new cd, there's a song called Go Places which I particularly wanted to hear, and they did that number next-to-last of their set. After that song I made my way to the exit and headed for the merchandise table.
I skipped the overlong Spoon merchandise line and went straight for Emma's. Her t-shirts and cds were all $10 each - what's not to like??? So I bought 3 cds and 2 shirts. The merch girl said "wow, you must really like Emma" and I said "actually, I really only came to see her and now I'm going home." She seemed impressed and said Emma normally came to the merch table between bands, and that I should wait a couple minutes because she knew Emma would want to say hi to me. I said ok, she sent a text message to Emma, and about 5 minutes later, Emma came up and merch girl directed her to me, and I said "hi, I'm your Dallas groupie" and she laughed. Emma was so kind, polite and lovely, and she asked me to sign up for her MySpace page for show updates. I told her I'm looking forward to the next opportunity to see her live, and that hopefully she'll be the headliner and do a much longer set. The next day I was amazed when I thought about that. I mean, Emma was a member of the Delgados, which was a band that sold out venues that seated thousands of people, and here she was taking the trouble to say hi to some random fan. How cool is that? Pretty amazingly cool, actually. She autographed my cds, btw.
Anyway, as I said, I hope you'll agree Emma's wonderful. Her music is catchy and memorable without seeming saccharine or cloying. I think her music will catch on, actually, but to a broader audience than was represented Friday night. For myself, I'm just happy to have seen her perform and to have my autographed cds and t shirts. WOOHOO!
See that? See how easy that is? I'm a simple woman with simple tastes. Sorta.
9 comments:
Great voice, interesting tunes and a real human being as well - you scored big time there.
dba dude - Yup - she's a cut above the rest.
Fantastic, Phlegm!
I love the video...I was wondering how it was going to end, nice twist there!
And her voice is extremely smoooooooth. Gotta love it.
christina - yeah, she's super-cool. Glad you like her!
Well, I sure appreciated your visit last night. Glad I kept the generator burning so that I could see that I wasn't the only one up night-owling. Sitting here talking to myself by kerosene light with the cats ignoring me just isn't the same thing. Thank you!!!
I was so sad when I read that Emma didn't really chat after receiving no encouragement, as she gave great banter at the Calgary show, but then to talk with her one on one, well that's so much better!
But Spoon were the headliners? What? They're pretty lame, I wouldn't have stayed for them either.
I do hope you got a good fill of Neko-ness, and that you enjoyed the New Pornos as well. They really are so much richer when she sings with them.
Lovely concert review!
Beautiful. Your taste is cool, as usual. Likewise on the infrequent comments babe. Work is killin' me lately, and partyin' more than ever too. Leaves no time for bloggin'.
lin - always a pleasure to visit your blog. We should instant message each other - I'd love to be in closer touch with you, and I often am up late at night. I'm at my best between 8pm and 3am. Seriously. Without caffeine, too..
barbara - well, like I said - pearls before swine. yeah, Spoon leaves me flaccid, too. Not my cup of tea, at all. It was great to see Neko, and the whole of the NP show was really good, actually, although I don't like the voice of that one guy with the really high voice - the one who's not always out on stage? Something in his tone is unpleasant to my ear, but I do appreciate him making music, anyway. Yeah, next time if Emma is here as headliner, no doubt the audience will be boiled down to people who appreciate her. As it was, though, a guy after me at the merch table was talking about how he'd not heard of her before and how blown away he was by her and her band, that he enjoyed her even more than the NP, who he came to see specifically. He was buying her stuff, too, and I'll bet he was one of many who got turned on to EP that night. Good on her - she rocks!!!
fhb - glad you liked her and found something new - yeah, I love to know what's going on and I love interesting and original new artists. It's called having a life, fhb, and I think congratulations are in order! :) Well done, you!
lin - always a pleasure to visit your blog. We should instant message each other - I'd love to be in closer touch with you, and I often am up late at night. I'm at my best between 8pm and 3am. Seriously. Without caffeine, too..
barbara - well, like I said - pearls before swine. yeah, Spoon leaves me flaccid, too. Not my cup of tea, at all. It was great to see Neko, and the whole of the NP show was really good, actually, although I don't like the voice of that one guy with the really high voice - the one who's not always out on stage? Something in his tone is unpleasant to my ear, but I do appreciate him making music, anyway. Yeah, next time if Emma is here as headliner, no doubt the audience will be boiled down to people who appreciate her. As it was, though, a guy after me at the merch table was talking about how he'd not heard of her before and how blown away he was by her and her band, that he enjoyed her even more than the NP, who he came to see specifically. He was buying her stuff, too, and I'll bet he was one of many who got turned on to EP that night. Good on her - she rocks!!!
fhb - glad you liked her and found something new - yeah, I love to know what's going on and I love interesting and original new artists. It's called having a life, fhb, and I think congratulations are in order! :) Well done, you!
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