Meee and Amandaaa and Amandaaa and meee!

Hurrah, I can finally put up the photo that Q took of me on my birthday! (I'll put up the other one soon, too, with both of us and Amanda.) I can't believe how cool she was, hanging out with everyone and signing posters and t-shirts and having photos taken and things. She fucking rocks. And here I am, being very, very fucking excited. With Amanda Palmer. Squee!



My my, but this blog is turning into an Amanda squee-fest, isn't it? I'm going to have to post about the concert soon, but I suppose I can say a little something about it now.

Right, so the concert started with a violinist playing some very soft, very sweet notes. He had white powder on his face, and dark hollows smudged under his eyes, and as he played the Danger Ensemble carried Amanda out on their shoulders, through the walkway in the centre of the darkened tent all wrapped up in a black shroud. (Who Killed Amanda Palmer indeed...) They carefully placed her down in front of the keyboard on stage, and stood in front of her, obscuring her from the crowd as if in mourning, and then suddenly jerked back and Amanda threw off the shroud and started playing. Everyone cheered, and I of course almost died of squee. She played two songs I hadn't heard before (bad fan!) which I think were Astronaut and Assistant, according to the set-list I found. Anyway, the keyboard fucked up in minutes, so she jumped onto the lovely huge grand piano on the side of the stage. Did you hear us complaining about that? No, you really didn't. The sound coming out of that thing was thunderously beautiful, and her voice was warm and lush and rich. I hadn't heard the songs, as I said, but I luxuriated in her stage presence all the same.

She said hello after the second song, and told us that she'd been on the phone with Brian ("You probably don't know who that is." "Of course we do!" I said) and that he sent huge hugs to everyone. Which was of course, lovely. Asked us how we all were, told us how excited she was to be playing, stole some champagne from the people in the front row. How cheeky. The came Ampersand and Icarus, which again, I hadn't heard, but which were absolutely beautiful. I kept thinking to myself 'Skits is going to love the lyrics to this when she hears them.' One that stuck in my head was 'Watch the man without a face/disappear without a trace...' Kind of reminded me of Half Jack.

And then she played Coin Operated Boy. I heart that song. I thought everyone would have a massive sing-along, because that's got to be the Doll's most recognised single, right? Yeah well, not as many people sang as I thought. I love the crowd-sing, I wish it had happened. The song was complete with the 'fuck him in the arse' lyric, which made the whole tent snigger. Hilarious.

Anyway. She played a song that was inspired by the Columbine shootings, which she apparently didn't think was strong enough to go on the album, but Ben Folds talked her into it. I think that was Strength Through Music, but I'm not sure. Anyway, it was haunting, and lovely all the same. I'm glad it's going on the album, because I want to hear it again.

Oh, and then next was the Point of it All. This was a great song, although she'd stolen so much champagne that half-way through she fucked up the verse, laughed, and had to start again. God, that was funny. Here's a video, taken by someone who is not me. Hee hee hee...

Ah, and next was Runs in the Family. Pre-recorded song from the new album, one which Q calls 'very Ben-Foldsy' but which was awesome. She and the DE grabbed a bunch of people from the audience to pose for a family portrait, which concluded with Amanda chucking glitter everywhere to mimic a flash. Really very cool.

And then came Half Jack. It was amazing. The extended, rolling piano intro went for about four minutes, and all the while friends on either side of me were poking me and nodding and whispering 'Half Jack!' in excited little whispers, and Q got her mobile out so we could voice mail it for Skits. (And here we have a live version of that, which has Brian as well, but you get the idea.)It makes so much a difference to the song to have Amanda singing it live. Every note is strong and rich and she plays it with so much passion. Nothing could compare to that, I'm sorry, it was just the best thing. It just throbbed with... longing, almost? Or sadness? Either way, it was glorious.

And then she played Mrs O. Which I adore. And of course, everyone got into it, and it was amazing to see live, also. (And at one point she had to reach out and grab the mic with her teeth. Someone, somewhere has video evidence.)

Right, so as if that wasn't cool enough, she left the stage and then came back with her uke, and rocked out to Umbrella. See video below, obviously. I swear to god I laughed and clapped the entire time. It was just so funny, with the DE rocking out, and the champagne waterfall, and then her strumming through the crowd. Spectacular. And then she played Creep! Wandering around in her underwear, with just the uke, and the entire crowd sang along, and there was just the most amazing energy in the tent.

And then I got to meet her! OK, so I was probably slightly too drunk to do myself justice, and really just squeed and thanked her for playing Half Jack, and got rather a few hugs (and had her tell my my hair smelled pretty... Hurrah!) and made an idiot out of myself, but I really couldn't help it.

Thus concluded a perfect birthday evening. And I'll stop getting excited about Amanda now. Promise. (Squee!)