The Troubadour~10,000 Maniacs.
heh. this is probably going to be a rushed review. There's so much to tell but i'm too tired to type for long. Okay. wow amazing experience.
First of all, i went because Val is a huge fan. They were her idols for so long. I personally found Natalies voice annoying and never liked them much. The *new* Maniacs are just okay as well. But i thought it would be fun, and Val needed someone to go with her..
So we went at about four. We wanted to try and meet them all. We right off befriend the band's long time "personal assistant" and he talks to us a lot and give us a lot of dirt on the band. The bad is being Dropped from their label and this is most likely their last show. So after waiting out side two hours, the band shows. We're still the only two there. heh.
Most of them just walk on in without even looking at us..but Jerry (the drummer) walks right over to us and smiles. Val asks him to sign her really rare record and he tells us a bit of history on the album and signs it. He signs my lil thing and i ask if val wants a pic with him. He took the CUTEST picture. He hugged her and put his head on top of hers. Val is so funny. She actually said "Wait, it hink i blinked..one more?" heh.i dont know anyone else that would do that. Then he took a similar picture with me..where val again says "erin you blinked! one more". She's so funny. Then he said bye and went in. I declared that he was the nicest person i had *ever* met and he was automatically my favorite :) Then steve the bassist comes out and we talk to him..typical hi sign bye type thing.blah blah its 8 o'clock. they horde us into the bar and wait for them to let us in. Oh yeah, Alana Davis is the opener. She looks about 16. She's the girl that covers Ani Difranco's 32 Flavors. Heh. We watched her walk around all day. She's very pretty. Anyhow, this random guy calls me and val "Huge 10,000 fans" and gives us VIP Loft Passes. We didn't use them because we wanted to be up front. But i have all access to the troubadour now. heh. So we're right up front in front of where Mary will be. We lay down our 2 dozen roses on the stage and wait.
Alana Davis~
She was very good. Not a very good stage presence..
but i figure that's due to the fact that she's probably just started playing live. She's a cross between Fiona (the voice) Ani (the guitar playing) and there's some heavy R&B influence in her voice. I'd like to get her album. Okay, now its time for 10,000. That random guy finds us in the crowd and says "The drummer guy...he's looking for you" Me and val are like, yeah right..he's like "seriously! i asked him and he said he wanted to see "the two little ones" and we're like whatever..bring him here..SO HE DID! he drug jerry through the crowd into the middle where we were. Me and val just crack up and say hi. Then he's like "i should go..almost show time.." it was almost embarassing.
The show was really good. Enjoyable. Because the night was very pretty. ANd i knew just about as much as val did..all the old 10,000 stuff :) They gave a good show. Jerry's niece was by us and kept telling Val to dance. Val dances so funny. she does the lilith fair interpurtive spiritual dance..but with val, it wasnt annoying..it was funny. Heh :)
after the show i got a set list..so here it is..i know the song titles are fragmented cos i dont know the actual titles..just whats here.
Setlist
Big Star
Beyond the Blue
Eyes Closed
Whats the Matter Here
Angels
Stockton
Wont Find Me
Claires Scarf
Shining Light
More than This
Can't Ignore the Train
Candy
These are Days
Mary did a beautiful Viola solo....and then the piano started a beautiful
Because the Night
Rainy Day
Encore:
We Have Nothing
Love Among the Ruins
Kerouac
Fun fun stuff. Oh yeah, we gave mary the gifts and flower's before the encore. Then val wants to see them after so..all the ppl in the front mainly, hang around after in hopes of meeting th band. The guy, starshine, that we had gotten to know told us they'd be out in a few minutes, and gave me and val set lists. heh. we also got some no smoking flyers and water botlles. It was a souviner night. Anyhow, he then tells us we need to leave the stage area so they can clean up ..and tells us to go up into the VIP loft. Neat.
So val and i are the first ones up and we
find some chairs and collapse. We're so tired. John and Jerry are already up there..but John scares us and we had met jerry a lot so we just sat there while everyone talked to them. Then Rob (other guitar player) who seems to be evyoesn fav comes in..me and val attack him right away. he was very nice and signed stuff...then he just..sat down right next to Val and started talking to her. When ppl would come up to talk to him she'd give me this look like "ahh..he's sitting next to me!" it was so funny. Then Mary came up and we got her right away too. And she was nice and said she loved the flowers and val's gift.Then um...Dennis..the piano guy came up. We again got him first and he was like "ofcourse i'll sign for you guys..you've been here all day..anything for you!" And um..we actually couldn't get away from him. Like everyone eelse, he went on and on about the rareness of Val's record and she mentioned to him (LIke she did to everyone else!) that she saw them on Sabrina the teenage witch and he started talking about that! and we were like.."we're going over here now.." and he was like "no wait.." and FINALLY someone else took his attention. It was lmost funny. So val went up to John and had him sign her record but he scared me and i was tired. So i just sat down. And so val and i veg a little, and i make another cool blur friend..and as we're debating whether or not to leave..jerry notices me and sits down next to me and starts talking to me. Heh. And when he finally leaves he gives me a really big bear hug. And then val. It was so sweet.
So we FINALLY decied to leave (its about 1 now) because we're starving and dead tired. But we wanted to find the crew guy and thank him for all the attention (he told a few ppl in the band that we had been waiting *all* day). And walking down the stairs we see him and say thank you..and we didn't realize John (the scary guitar player) was walking in front of him..so he thought we were talking to him,. he was like "no problem" then he hugged val and kissed her cheek..and then did the same to me...then we said thank you to the crew guy..and giggled on our way out like "ahh..he kissed us!" heh.
THEN while walking to our car we passed jerry again..and we're like bye! and he patted uson the back..and we we're afraid he thought we were stalking him. We just laughed. We couldn't believe what just happened!.
heh. then we went and ate way too much at the toi cafe where we ran into heather again! (She had been at the show and at the after party...ohh..i met her at the Morrissey shows...she rocks. heh) and it was just..i dunno. it was a trippy night.
:)