First, an apology for the background image which I suspect may take a while to load for some. I just couldn't resist it. Heh.
So. I got on the 12.16 pm bus from Durham to Chapel Hill. Once there I bought some Doritos and some Easter candy at 90% off and went to the bus stop where Gene had told me he would pick me up. While waiting there a girl with long strawberry blonde hair started to talk with me, asking if I was going to the Ani concert and talking a bit about the Ani concert's she had been to and was going to (I'm assuming my tags all ofver my shirt saying "ANI", "OVERLAP" and "Fight! Fight! Fight!" tipped her off that I was going), and when she left she said she'd keep a look out for me when she got to the show. Around 1.30 pm Gene picks me up, I show him my hair and off we went. Originally the plan was to get batteris for my CD player and listen to CD's all the way to Charlotte instead of subjecting ourselves to the radio, but we quickly got wrapped up in some sort of religion discussion that lasted most of the way there. We did stop at a gas station once in the middle of who knows where. I got a blue raspberry slush puppy, some Mountain Dew, a Snickers' bar and an ice cream. Oh, and a starring girl at the cash register. I know I talk about my hair a lot but heh, whatever. I thought she was starring at me because she thought I had stolen something. It turned out she was just hypnotized by my fuschia mess. Heh. Once we got to Charlotte we followed the directions I got from a friend who lives there and.. we found the venue after circling it once (it was right by a football stadium, and teeny. We couldn't believe that little thing was it.) and then we circled the campus another 6 or 7 times to figure out where to park. The same woman caught our last 4 lapses or so and looked mighty perplexed. After I fixed (*smirk*) Gene's hair with my trusty Herbal Essences Spray gel (hey, it totally works - last week I had a flat orange whatever hair do, now I have an enormous mass of orange and fuschia hair just sprouting out everywhere as if I was from Texas) we parked, hung around the venue for a while, re-parked, hung around some more, found a bathroom, moved closer to the venue... and then.. they opened the doors and we ran in. It was general admission, and I thought I'd be a total loser and up way back but in fact we got spots in something like the 6'th or 7'th row -dead center-. We spent the hour till the opening band talking with each other and the people around us while we all sat on the floor. Next to us was a grey haired hippy looking couple that were awesome - the man was really nice and talked to me lots, trying to convince me to push my way up to the front because I was an Ani virgin. And so the opening band came on. I really don't quite know how to describe them. They were called "Drum'n'Tuba" or something like that, and consisted of a guy on guitar, another on drums and another on tuba (sometimes trumpet). Together they made this reaaaallly cool rythmic weird music concoction that worked, if not the entire time, then at least 70% of it. And I got a bit enamoured with all three of the musicians. And then... half an hour long pause and... Ani and her band comes in. Can you say ecstatic crowd? :) Now, what follows is a modifyed version of a post I made to the Ani news group. It's got tidbits and memories I remember, slightly out of order, but whatever. Heeeere ya go! Background: I was told about Ani online back in 1997, but it took me until last year to actually get to hear her music; I started out as a fan of hers through reading interviews, reading lyrics and looking at amazing photo's. Gene, who I went to the concert with, has been a fan for quite a while so he prepped me for weeks with Living in Clip and Little Plastic Castle and Up Up Up... And I had "Not a Pretty Girl" on a mixed tape Jessica had made me when I was in Arizona. I was dead center, maaaaybe 7 rows back but it really was just about 20 feet. Lucky me most of the girls in front of me where really short so I could see her very well and closeup; I don't know, it just ads something when you hear someone singing and can see the slightest movement of the muscles around her mouth as she sings, you know? I'm sort of stunned over how lucky I have been - first I get to see Tori twice, both times close enough to see individual sweat drops (heh), and now this. *content sigh* Hmm. I cannot remember the entire set list, nor quite the order, but I'll mention as many songs as I can remember and a little what she said in between. I believe she played (Completely out of order, I'm looking at lists of songs on a site album by album): 1. 'Tis of Thee
I think it was possibly before this one that she talked a bit about how things seemed before 1980 ("You know, when I was, oh, 9...") before "Reggie and Georgie-Porgie fucked everything up", and how the word homeless and such werent' appearing as headlines as muc back then.
The tuba/trumpet player from Drums and Tuba came out with his trumpet and joined in wonderfully, and I was grateful to have enough space to be able to jump along with the chorus.
4. Gravel
Somewhere in the beginning a guy was fiddling with the tape on her fingers, and then I think a bit of skin got ripped off a finger and Ani started talking about it "Oh this happens every other day.. Oh what to do... come back here and give me some tape... I'm like an biological experiment to see what happens when a person uses way too much glue. I'll just tape this bubbly stuff up.. yeah... I'm into adhesives *laugh*"
I knew Gene totally loves this, as do I, so it was quite a treat.
5. Two Little Girls
I -love- this song.
here comes little naked me
6. Pulse
MmMMm very nice ending with improvised vocalizations at the end.
7. Shy
Chorus:
so fuck you
She seemed annoyed with how everyone would scream "Fuck you!" along with the chorus and stopped sort of mid through and said something about "..if you want to sing along like folkies... *laughter*.. and you know I know it sounds like a sports cheer but really it's like a pathetic little song about unrequited love where you know you love someone and they've been living with
someone else for like 10 years and you're in love and you are in hate with in love and that person they've been living with and.."
(paraphrasing heavily on all quotes, btw - this is how I remember it.)
It didn't really help much - ppl just laughed along and then shouted "Fuck You" as loud as ever.. heh.
10. Firedoor
MmMm a lot of people didn't recognize it until she started to sing because it was a bit slowed down and just.. different. I absolutely loved it. It was *great* - she performed it in a very angry manner, and at one point turned to the band and screamed "FUCK!!!"
13. Hello Birmingham
"I have this new song and it came about when I was being interviewed in Birmingham -- well the reporter was in Birmingham and I was somewhere else on the phone and she called me up the other day and asked about this song and I just said "How did you know?? Did you go on the internet or something?" and I don't know.. I would like to say I'm just too old for that stuff
(computers/internet, I think she meant) but it's more just.. *shakes her head*"
I must say this song had me crying - for once the place was entirely quiet except for her. Absolutely beautiful. Also, it deals with Dr King's assassination back in the 60's and somehow when she sang about the shots and everything it illustrated what had happened in Littleton, Colorado. I cried pathetically. It was beautiful.
Encore: Both Hands (Which Amy was talking about :)
So we're all screaming and cheering for her to come back out, and so eventually she does - just her and the guitar, and she does the opening chords for "Both Hands" and then laughs to herself, stops and goes "You guys are not going to believe this but.. I haven't played this song in a long time and there are only 4 chords but I forgot the second one..." *everyone laughs,
girl in front shouts to Ani* "Haha, this girl here just said "I can play it!" and we're all laughing and she.. goes down to where the first row is, talks to the girl (I think) and then helps her up on stage. She asks her for her name and gives her the guitar and by now the crowd is deafening - I really have never heard anything like it. "This is Kim.. she's going to play it."
And so Kim looks really embarrasses and she stands with her back to the audience, starts playing and gets it going and we're all cheering wildly and so she gets really embarrassed and turns to Ani and motions for us to be quiet, so Ani says something about "give her a break and be quiet, it's not easy to get up here in front of all you.." and so Kim starts to play again and.. Ani starts singing Both hands.
and both hands
It was absolutely amazing. Kim played it very well, with very few screwups,
and very different from Ani - softer, sort of, which was just perfect, and
Ani by the microphone doing hand gestures and really just singing. What was
really cool was people from behind the stage popped out on the sides and
stood and watched them play and just smiling sooo widely... and when it was
time to get off Stage, Ani took Kim by the arm and brought her off stage with
her, and the crew just really welcomed Kim. Now that girls' gunna have one
hell of a memory :)
(I may have missed somehting .)
And that was that.
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