oh, medusa

* omg I need a Halloween costume, guys, what am I going to do? Ideas, give them to me!

* The concert was amazing and epic and beautiful and everything I hoped it would be. It wasn't the best performance I've seen from him, but I think that's a slightly less than fair thing to say, as a slightly less than perfect Andrew Bird performance is still something above and beyond pretty much any other show I've ever been to.

* My review of the show is here, at my blog. Photos are here, at Flickr.

* Concert Buddy and I got there extra early around 5:15ish, but we couldn't get in until 6, so we sat around and freaked out/screwed around on Twitter/mocked the hipster kids and the people trying to get into the locked museum doors. The whole thing was making us both a little anxious though, because there was no order, no instructions, no one there who knew what was going on. So there was no line, just this massive blob, and we were both like ORDER. LINE. MUST HAVE. Eventually, as it neared 6, we started edging up next to the doors that the security guard was standing at. We wound up being probably in the first group of 10-15 to get in. En route to finding seats, we walk right past Andrew Bird himself, who is wandering around kind of aimlessly. We waited until we were appropriately far away to freak out properly. We managed to waltz our way up to a table right front and center, which we sure weren't going to complain about.

* Much waiting ensued, and then more waiting, and more waiting. Which was followed by more waiting, while a woman from the art museum and a guy from the radio station had a little discussion about art and music. Nice, kind of funny, but the crowd was impatient for Andrew Bird. I ran to the restroom as soon as they were finished, hoping that the break would be long enough for me to get back in time, but unfortunately, the restroom might as well have been in another freaking state, it was so far away. :( As I exited the restroom, I could hear the opening notes of his first song -- the acoustics in the place were absolutely crazy -- and shuffled a little faster to get back.

* Once the show was over, guests were allowed to walk around some of the exhibits in the modern wing, which was pretty awesome. I hadn't been over there yet, other than just a quick walk through to find the restaurant my boss took me to the other week, so it was really great to have that chance. And also really great to have that chance surrounded by other people who were the kinds of people to think critically about art. Very awesome. There's some deep stuff in there.

* Concert Buddy and I walked around for about half an hour until we realized we had finally exhausted all of the areas of museum that we were allowed to go into. "I guess that's it. The only thing left for us to do," I said as we turned the corner from the staircase and began walking towards the doors, "is to hunt down Andrew Bird whoisstandingrightinfrontofus." Yeah, he was just a little bit in front of us, taking a picture with some people. (Apologies to those people, who probably have me and Concert Buddy in the background being alll :O) And cue fangirl freakout. It wasn't so much that he was standing there, but that he was a) still at the museum at all, and b) talking to people and c) taking photos with people who are obviously fans, because it's not like real friends would be all Hai let's pose for photos! After shuffling further away to observe and freak out without being seen as total psychos, it became pretty clear that if Concert Buddy went up to talk to him, that she would have either thrown up on his shoes or had a panic attack or something awful, and I was like, well, I'm not letting this opportunity pass me by, and just sort of marched up to him and, idk, spewed some word vomit at him. Something lame about how I love his music and am just amazed every time I see his live show and omghugefan. He asked my name and shook my hand and was all, wow, thanks, that's really nice, sure you can have a photo. While I was wrangling someone to take the pic, Concert Buddy said hello to him and got in the shot. (The woman I asked to take the pic, for the record, was really snippy with me. I'll feel bad if I'm badmouthing his mom or something, but she was like "Yes, I'll take it, just don't take up too much of Andrew's time" or something like that. Bitch plz. He could have said no if he didn't want to take the time to have picture with us; he's notorious for politely declining to take photos with people. The last time Concert Buddy had the opportunity to talk to him, she asked for a photo and he said no and she was kind of crushed. It wasn't like I was expecting to have an indepth conversation with him. The whole encounter took, like, 3 minutes tops.) So we got our photo (which is yet another atrocious photo of me - though not quite so bad as the one with Loudon Wainwright) and said thank you and then scurried outside and promptly made a big pile of SQUEE in the doorway. Epic.

* He is so tiny omg I just want to put him in my pocket. When I talked with him, he was just a hair taller than me, and I was in ~4" heels, putting him at probably 5'9" or 5'10" or so. But physically he's just so... angular. Lanky. Wiry. Something like that. I wouldn't be shocked if I weighed more than he did. Very kind and gracious and patient when presented with one fangirl who makes a giant run-on sentence all in one breath, and another who could barely get out her name. And also pretty.

* So we sat around outside the museum while Concert Buddy smoked a POST-ANDREW BIRD-FREAKOUT cigarette, and we both sent obnoxious tweets out to the internet. She finished her cigarette and was like, well, I guess that's it, there's not much else to do. Cue Andrew Bird walking out of museum, violin case strapped to his back. "Not much else to do except see where he's going," we said. We followed from a decent distance (this wasn't creepy stalker following; regardless we had been heading in the same direction down Monroe anyway), wondering if he was just going to go take the train home or something, because that would not be surprising at all. He went and got in a car with someone, though, and thus ended any ideas of getting in the same train car and staring wistfully at the back of his head.

* Poking around in my blog stats, I found out that a link to my entry was tweeted first by this guy, Don Van Natta, Jr., who is apparently an investigative reporter for the New York Times, and then that one was retweeted by this guy, Matthew Cooper, who was a reporter at Time magazine and who was one of the journalists held in contempt of court for not naming sources during the Valerie Plame thing. CUE INTERNET FREAKOUT, OMG. Like, OMG, WOW. I tweeted at both of them thanking them for linking, and then continued freaking out. In the grand scheme of things, a link on twitter from some noteworthy people doesn't really mean a whole lot, but, wow, it excites me.

* I also went out on a limb and wrote to Gapers Block, a local news site, offering them my review for their music section. They had covered the announcement of the show, but I didn't know if they had anyone at the show to do a writeup. Anyhow, the editor of the music section said she'd love to have the post, and she put it up and linked to some of my photos on Flickr. I was kind of hoping she would link to my website, but whatever, awesome. The post on Gapers Block is here, and now it comes up whenever you Google my name, so there's something in the search results other than stuff about the big gay inaugural parade.

* VERDICT = AWESOME.

A Hawk and a Hacksaw

The opening band was A Hawk and a Hacksaw, a four piece group with accordion, violin, trumpet, and...tuba. Tuba! Also, eventually the violinist busted out a ... trumpet violin? I'm sure the thing has a real name, but when I googled for "trumpet violin" I got this, so that's all the further I cared to look. They had a very Eastern European type feel, reminding me a lot of groups like Beirut and DeVotchKa. Most of their set (about 30-45 minutes) was instrumental, with a few songs with vocals. Very appropriate as an opener for Andrew Bird; it reminded me a lot of his earlier albums, which were more obviously influenced by traditional Eastern European music. They were entertaining, particularly if you like that kind of music. The accordion player (who was formerly in Neutral Milk Hotel) was the leader of the group, though he didn't talk much, which was okay because he was kind of awkward. Anyhow, their music had a very organic feel, the songs all sort of blended into each other. Also, there were tuba solos. You've got to respect any group that write music that includes tuba solos.

Andrew Bird

Of course, everyone was there for Mr. Bird himself. I don't really think there are enough words to really describe the show he puts on. It's amazing on a musical level as well as a technical one. Also, it was very neat to see him in an environment that was built and engineered to get the best sound carry possible. Even before he plugged the violin in and started singing, you could hear him tuning, you could hear the clicks of the pedals he uses for looping, you could hear the little sighs and intake of breath before he started. He probably could have done the whole show unplugged and you still would have heard him in the third balcony.

There's not a whole lot to say about the show itself that I didn't already say in my other post. He came out in bright red pants, plaid jacket, and scarf, and after the first song when he paused to take off his shoes (he always plays barefoot), the audience cheered. I believe his socks were stripey. This man has an epically awesome collection of fun socks. He started, solo as usual, with a bit of Dark Matter, then went right into Why?, which will always make me happy and also make me have to try really hard not to throw myself at the stage or something. Other songs included Headsoak, Don't Be Scared (both with Nora O'Connor), Fitz and the Dizzy Spells, Anonanimal, Opposite Day, Measuring Cups, Natural Disaster (which he introduced by telling the story behind the song, which involved him catching pleurisy and thinking how appropriate it was that he wound up with a Victorian-era lung disease), Tables and Chairs, The Happy Birthday Song, and of course, Dr. Stringz and Fake Palindromes (which he prefaced by talking about how this was the same point in the show the prior night where he'd dropped his violin and broke it; he said it was one of those moments you can really only look at and thing "wow, the worst really has happen. As a musician who's had her own instrument malfunctions in the middle of performances, I can certainly identify with that). The setlist really included a good deal of older material, for a tour that's supposed to be in promotion of his new album. There were very few lyrical foibles, and only a couple of missed looping cues, and unlike some other artists I love dearly (I'm looking at you, Rufus Wainwright), the mistakes were barely noticeable and he just kept pressing right on, turning the errors into just another part of the song.

Seeing performers like Andrew Bird really just makes me want to be a better musician. It's concerts like this one that I leave and find myself longing to be performer. One review I read said that it's obvious that Andrew Bird is probably one of those painfully shy, introverted people who feels most at home performing, and that's about it, and there's really something there that I (and I suspect, a lot of his fans) can identify with. The passion this guy has for music is ridiculous. Music really is a living, breathing thing for him, and songs are always being created and edited and reworked. You'll never hear a song be performed the same way twice. It's so impressive, and I don't know how you can walk away from a show like this without being in awe (unless your name is Jim DeRogatis and you use your music column as a way to show off your epic grudge against Andrew Bird, who apparently killed your puppy and stole your girlfriend all in the same day).

At the end of the concert, you can't help but feel like you've just witnessed something magical and one of a kind, and in a way, you have.

Check out my photos on Flickr.
Listen to Headsoak and Skin Is, My; audio from both ripped from the videos I took on my camera which I'm still waiting to finish uploading on Youtube.
Check out Andrew Bird and A Hawk and a Hacksaw online.