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Because I'm not trying to reference a 1984 song by Prince.
What I'm talking about is that I had another one of those "I know this song" moments yesterday on my way to work.
My car is finally fixed - the air conditioning blows high and cold, so I'm cruising to and from work with my windows rolled up and cool air on me.
Considering it hit 100° by 1pm yesterday, I think it's a wonderful thing that the AC works again in my car. Especially since the AC has been broken in part of the building I work at, cool air is a good thing.
I mean, when the lunch room hits 98° at 5pm, that's not a good sign (this was Friday). Needless to say, they're attempting to get it fixed.
But anywa
y...
While I had the module fixed on my car Saturday, I also had an oil change. So everything is nice and good to go. The workers had told my mom we only need an oil change once a year, because she questioned something about her car (it's one of those fancier ones that tell you how many days you are from needing service). They answered her question and we were off to do errands while my car was being fixed.
When my car was done, I picked it up and off I went (home). The AC was on high and blasting everywhere. YAY!!
Now I'm afraid to change it because I don't want to break it. Plus, the spring or whatever is behind the knob is so tight, it's a tiny struggle to shift it as it is. More reason to leave it alone. I'll drive around forever with the AC blasting. Haha.
I squirreled out context. Stay with me.
Due to the holiday Monday, there was no work. Tuesday I didn't leave the house as I wasn't feeling well (I did something wrong with my smoothie). So yesterday was the first day back to work for me for the week.
I was almost halfway to work when I hear the first few seconds of a song where I still have the CD somewhere of.
All it took was the beginning chords to Melissa Etheridge's Come To My Window (track 3 off Yes I Am)for me to "turn it up a bit".
I'm still keeping my volume semi low, but where the AC is blasting, the songs have been playing on 5 instead of 4. Sometimes it's so low, I don't realize what's playing because I don't hear it. It just happened to be that I was at a red light so I didn't have a lot of car noise to disrupt what I thought I heard.
Needless to say, for about three minutes, I aimlessly bobbed my head to the music and continued on my drive. It just goes to show you that much like the other day, there are songs so embedded into the fabric of our brains, we don't realize what we are hearing until we're halfway through singing along.
It does make life more interesting, but it also is an awkward pain because there are times I know I'm mumbling to myself in the middle of the grocery store because I'm singing along to whatever is on the overhead speakers. I know people must look at me funny, but I can't help it. I've got to get the crazies out somehow, since all I do during the week is listen to podcasts and stare at a computer. It doesn't help the person I share a space with, will fill me in on her crazy for 2 hours in the morning. Which then only adds to my mouth moving in the middle of a store.
Of all the things we do to stay sane, some of it just can't be helped...
Cheers;
See Also:
* First line reference: Prince, Let's Go Crazy, from the Purple Rain album (track 1).
This time next week, it'll be the first day of six months of weather watch. Six months of making sure the cars are fully filled with gas and are ready to get the eff out if we have to. Six months of making sure we're good with supplies. Six months of making sure the refrigerator and freezer have just enough food so that it's not overloaded if we lose power, making us throw everything out if it can't be salvaged with a container of ice for a few hours.
Because you never know if a major storm will strike (due to the possibility of wind shift. Patterns change; we found that out twice in what will be 13 years here).
Considering the way the country has been flooding lately, as well as having tornados touch down in the most random of places, start taking stock now.
We're in for a doozy of a season, "they" are predicting. Even though they have been saying that every year for the past couple years.
But again, if it weren't for the random flooding in areas that rarely get but an inch or two of rain, the plethora of funnel clouds that make you think Dorothy is in the area, there wouldn't be a question about the severity of storms to come.
Sure, we have been getting threatened with "the chance" of a storm or two, but no one in Southwest Florida expected Irma in 2017. They sure as hell didn't expect Ian in 2022.Yet the area is still trying to put the pieces back together from Charley in 2004, so Ian's wrath is still a bit of a mess in some places right now.
So yeah, come next weekend, I'm sure people are going to watch the news more closely. They're already talking about the storms and predictions where I work and none of us really want to be here to see it to fruition.
As long as we are still in this building, we have to, unfortunately.
Therefore, it's time to start checking the tote bins marked "Hurricane". What we don't have, we need to get either when stores have their tax free days on supplies, or online.
Just searching "hurricane preparedness items" on Amazon, I found lanterns, batteries, first aid kits. Beef jerky??? I think they lumped "hurricane" in with "camping", but it can go either way.
Also on the page is something called Vive Toilet Bowl Liners with Super Absorbent Pads (24 Pack). Where was THAT when we needed it? We were struggling to use the toilet with the plastic shopping bags in order to do our business (like everyone else in the neighborhood was. However, the neighbors used the gross water that was backed up on the street to fill their toilets. Beggars can't be choosers, but no one thought to fill their tub before the storm hit, so no extra "clean" water). This thing looks like that bowl liner would have been a perfect lifesaver. I'll have to tell my mother...
"Hurricane supples" lists similar items, but deviates a little more by adding solar powered items on the first page. Things like a fan (omg you need it, especially if a hurricane hits early in the summer. It's 96° with humidity right now, so yeah, a solar powered fan will be a lifesaver). There's a little camping stove that uses those little canned fuel heaters (the type catering companies use for events under chafing dishes).
There are things that look like bug out bags, called "hurricane kits". They really are retrofitted back packs meant for emergency situations - getting lost while hiking, camping, end of the world type stuff. Looks like good ideas, but not meant for a storm season. In my opinion. I can definitely see this type of thing being used for special emergency situations.
All in all, I know I don't want to be here to talk about another hurricane that graced our presence, but what am I to do? With no job lined up back north, I can't just move without something to go do. Yes, the "fear" of another storm season is enough to push me away, but lack of sustainable income to purchase a house and secure work is keeping me here at the moment. It sucks, but what are you going to do?
Ed, my neighbor is doing what he can, that's for damn sure. Middle of March, if I recall correctly, he and his wife were outside in the driveway, having their drinkies moment, and Ed was tinkering in the garage. He was setting up a new generator and getting it ready; seeing if it works. Joanne just sat in her lounge chair, supervising, listening to whatever was on the radio in the running Cadillac. Yes, they back their car into the garage and keep it running just to play music. Must be nice to afford that... and coming from up north, they should know better than to back the car into the garage. Shame on that part. But, there's Ed, just tooling away, getting the place cleaned up so that he knows where everything is, and what he might need extras of. My mom told Joanne that she's got her plasticware restocked so we have plenty of throwaway cups, forks, knives, spoons and plates. Joanne laughed and said she's been doing the same thing. After the last time of all of us getting together, we now all joke and fill each other in on who is getting what.
At least I was smart and grabbed a decent sized styrofoam cooler from an event at work. Twice a company came and provided my job with a free lunch. Both times we got bagged ice, a styrofoam cooler with lid (that looks like this. Choose your own adventure when you but it; reviews on that link aren't good, but Amazon has others), several sleeves of aluminum cups (holy cow do these cups retain cold!! Fair dos - put a couple ice cubes in these cups with some water and you've got a cold drink for a few hours) and the food - 2 liter bottles of cola, catering from a local Mexican restaurant and plastic ware. Because there are hardly any people in my office (majority work remotely), I know everything sits for days after an event. So I called the leftover cups and the cooler and off they went with me.
So now we've got 2 coolers and several packs of cups to keep on hand, although I'm not sure about the cups since they're apt to get damn well hot in the sun all day, which isn't the point of the drink staying cool.
I don't want to try it out, but at least we have them.
On another note, I got my car back today. The air conditioning module is all fixed and I'm good to go. Even got an oil change. I am so happy to have AC again in my car and am glad this wasn't winter in New England. Otherwise I'd be stuck with no heat in the car. I'm also glad I didn't get any dead animals stuck in my car like I had last fall. If I had something corpsing on my engine while I've not had AC.. God help me; I don't know what I would have done. Maybe that would be the kick in the ass I would need to buy a new car.
#nojinx
But yeah, my car is fixed and all I need to do now is keep it gassed up whenever it gets to half a tank. I don't want to get stuck with nothing for the next several months.
Other than that, everything is okay. Still trying to stay out of the heat and figure out what I can do next in life. Any suggestions, let me know!
Due to riding around the city with my windows down, I've not had my radio on super loud. It's been on like 5 or 6 because I can't hear great as it is, and I don't want to be one of those drivers who annoy the tar out of the person next to them at a light. There is no need for the entire block to hear what I'm playing, unless it is a really amazing song.
So I keep my music to myself and I tend to keep the radio on low.
Because of that, I don't pay attention to what's playing. Like I said, I've got no super powers in the hearing department, so I mainly recognize a song when I'm stopped at a light, since wind noise gets the best of conversations and music 9 times out of 10.
That being said, the other day I was stopped at a light. I heard the low sounds of a harmonica in a certain way and knew instantly it was Blues Traveler's Run Around (track 1 off of 1994's Four). This is a song I ended up turning up a little so I didn't look too foolish singing along to.
Yes, I'm one of those idiots who tend to sing along sometimes to good songs.
It wasn't even like the point of the song was at the beginning. We're talking it's right smack in the middle when John Popper starts wailing into the chorus and then into the "Tra la la la la bombardier, this is the pilot speaking" verse. So it's almost near the end of the track.
Run Around is one of those Blues Traveler songs that radios play a lot of. I want to say I've heard But Anyway (track 1 off Blues Traveler) and Hook (track 9 off the aforementioned Four) on occasion, but it's mainly Run Around. There's not too many "known" singles from the group unless you're going deep into other radio stations (not the run of the mill "we play everything!" station).
I've got a few albums from the group and had the cassette tapes at one point in time, so I'm used to hearing their random stuff. It always surprises me when something is played, and I do tend to raise the volume a little bit. It was just that in this instance the other day, it was about 8:15 in the morning, 90+° and my coffee hadn't fully kicked in yet. And I must have looked like some addict talking to myself during the morning rush hour.
It's funny but it's not. I know that. You do what you need to, to keep you sane. If headphones worked well, I'd listen to a podcast on my drive, but the wind noise is the same no matter if the radio is on or my headphones are in. It's a disruption regardless. That's also why I need to close the window if I've got someone in my car and they're talking to me about something. Happens to be that my hearing loss is on the right side of my head... just where people are sitting - passenger side.
No, I've not tried hearing aids yet, although some people have asked me if I thought about cochlear implants - maybe that would work? That's a "no" too. I know I have problems, but I also haven't done research on anything. I guess, for lack of a better phrasing, I'm stubborn and don't want it. It's not like I'm too prideful or really too stubborn, but it's one of those things I know I'm probably going to need at one point later on and I just don't want to get anything yet. I know there's new technology out there for hearing aids, but I've also seen some negativity around it. We're there, but we're not there yet. I need my eyes fixed and my hearing fixed, and science needs to hurry up and create something before I dive into anything current.
Call me crazy or whatever else you want. I know I'm being that way. But what are you going to do? I'll bide my time as everything gets worse and sit back to wait and see if better opportunities come along.
Until then, enjoy the 105° humidity and turn up the bass a bit.
Especially if you're a fat kid with no working air conditioning in your car.
Yup. I said it.
I have no AC in my car and haven't had any in almost two weeks.
What seems to trivial is the simple fact that the turn knob on the AC / Heat control unit broke.
The knob currently spins like a roulette wheel, and the push button doesn't even turn on the AC when you press it.
I thought it would be one of those "quick fixes"; the kind where it's a maximum $500 charge to replace the knob and pay for labor. The kind of thing where maybe even the wiring mechanisms detached somehow.
Well, it's not that easy.
I took my 2013 Hyundai Accent over to the local car repair shop (because good luck trying to get in touch with the Hyundai dealership. They're under new ownership and between both my mother and I, neither one of us got to talk to anyone for 2 whole days when we tried contacting them about this issue).
Almost two hours in the waiting room, I was told it's the whole module that needs to be replaced.
Wait; what?
The insides - the computer and module need to be replaced. It's not just the knob that's broken. The whole panel has to be taken out and a new one put in.
It's due to the computer parts in the car and everything has to play nicely, so I'm told.
Problem is, because my car is 11 years old and Hyundai has discontinued making the Accent, the part isn't a stocked model.
So, it has to be special ordered and won't arrive for seven days.
I did ask if the guy thinks the dealership would have the part and he said it's highly doubtful. They'd have to order it as well and charge me the same amount of money. The only difference between this place and the dealership is the labor charge.
Labor at the repair shop is significantly less than what the dealership charges. I don't remember the exact figure, but it was more than fifty dollars an hour, different.
My other concern is the fact that I "got rid" of my Volkswagen Golf at 11 years old. Things were super failing on that car. I had researched some of the problems it was having, and found out that they were common issues around the 10 year mark. Well, off I need to go to find a new car because it would become way too unreliable to continue driving. It already was starting to become challenging. After a few set backs, I traded it in and got the Accent.
Now that I've reached the age where anything is possible regardless of how well you maintain it, the car could go sideways at any point now. So my worry is that if I replace this module, "what's next?". I don't want to have to worry about getting a new car right now; it's not in the cards. As much as I don't have the money to replace the panel, it's significantly cheaper than figuring out how I'm going to magically find "new car money".
So quick squirrel panic decision made and I put a down payment on the part. Once it comes in, I'll get a phone call and schedule an appointment. Until that happens, I've been riding around the city with my windows down in the 100° heat.
And this is not a dry heat.
This is a "I hate the feel of needing to change my clothes just by looking outside the window" type of heat and humidity. The same kind you laugh at other people over when they have noticeable swamp ass.
Uh huh. I went there. Because it's true.
Even going out to my car to take photos of the console as I write this... it's damn well hot. And I've been in the house now for an hour.
I joked to a few people that it's this kind of weather where it's not only hazardous to leave children in a hot car, it's hazardous to leave fat kids in the car as well. Someone I told that to, laughed, and said "it's fat everyone! Adults included!". Which is true.
There's got to be something better and easier. Make life more manageable.
Maybe a high winner of a lottery ticket, perhaps?
Oh... and the posts about the Indigo Girls Concert last week and having a "ride or die poultry" in my car...
Meet Chickenman:
He don't cluck around... but he will shake his (lack of) tail feathers at your service! 😁
Again, he's not totally tied up like the one on Amazon, but he gets the job done.
I think that's about it right now. It looked like there might be some storm clouds rolling around outside, so I better be making this post end soon so I can shut my computer off.
I'll update the car situation when it happens.
Until then, stay out of the sun.
Unless it's pretty chill where you are. Then go outside and enjoy it.
Just a quick PSA regarding my friend Rachael's book.
The paperback is officially out (May 15): Sangre De Toro
For those on Kindle (it came out April 30, if you didn't grab it as a pre-order): Sangre De Toro
For those needing a refresher in the synopsis (pulled from the Amazon page):
When Pepelito dramatically escapes certain death in a bullfight, he enrages some and delights others. Taken pity on by Rita Silvera, a caring homicide detective, he soon begins to heal from the physical and psychological torture of the bullring.
But Pepelito's nightmare is not over. Javier Castella is the best matador in Spain - maybe the world. He would kill for a chance to finish his masterpiece - and he's not the only one.
Because, as Rita soon learns, a serial killer is on the loose. And her love of animals might make her the next target...
'Rachael accurately describes what it means for a bull to be a victim of bullfighting. The physical pain, the fear, the agony. The bull's perspective is missing from most written bullfighting stories, making this book different and refreshing. For anyone who considers bullfighting a barbaric activity, this book also offers comfort. In addition, it is an exciting story that will keep you up until the last moment!" - Estefania Pampin Zuidmeer, campaigner CAS International
Cover by Nisha P. Sons
Content warning: This book contains mature themes and descriptions of violence, including towards animals. It will not be suitable for all.
It already has four reviews on Amazon (none are mine, yet. She already knows I think she's a rockstar and the book is an eye opener for the harmful way bulls are treated. Like I've said in a previous post, Rachael did her research and it shows).
Please go support my friend and help her fight the cause of ending the mistreatment of these animals.
I had emailed my cousin Brady last night about the blog post I did regarding the Indigo Girls. He had written back with some comments about how glad he is that I went and that he understands some of the things I said in the post regarding being a little nervous (or in his words, "apprehensive"). However, he is happy that I had gone (as am I). He also gave examples of his own adventuring and it got me thinking about some other items I didn't mention in the original post.
The Indigo Girls are one of those bands whose music I've had since the 1990s. When I wrote about Amy and Emily performing songs from the vault, it was stuff like "Galileo", "Get Out The Map", "Go", "Shame on You", "It's Alright", "Gone Again" and other singles you forget about over the years because some are not radio ready, while others are. They can also be used in film and you don't realize it just yet.
Some of these can be tracks that are on compilation records, such as Retrospective and The Essential Indigo Girls. Much like some of them are hit or miss to find (like the entire Come On Now Social album being one of those "used" CDs selling in places).
All this talk about songs and missing out on life, I had spoken about the merch table and how it costs just as much as a ticket some times.
The things I bought were 2 Lucy Wainwright Roche CDs (Little Beast and Lucy [this is an import from Japan on Amazon. Use your discretion if you buy it]). I'll be honest and tell you that I paid $40 total for both albums. They were the only discs being sold for Lucy.
Unfortunately I don't remember all the discs for the Indigo Girls, but there wasLook Long on CD and Vinyl. I think there was one or two individual albums (aka solo stuff) from both Amy and Emily. I really wish I remember what they were.
Also on the merchandise table was an Indigo Girls trucker hat (in a cursive font), a canvas tote bag (same type of font), Look Long and Indigo Girls stickers, little trinkets and 3 different shirts. Two shirts were black and one was white. I don't remember the white one, but the black ones were definitely different. One had a half of a red guitar width wise across the chest and said "Indigo Girls" above the neck of the guitar. In tiny little writing was Amy and Emily's autograph etched in to the top of the sound hole.
That is the one shirt I bought for 40 dollars. The bummer is that it's not "a tour shirt". Meaning, the image is the only thing on the shirt. Truth be told, none of the shirts had tour information on them.
Trust me, I asked.
I mean, if you're going to go to a concert and buy memorabilia, it should have the tour dates on it.
Right....??
However, that can also go different ways, as db's Heathen tour shirt has Mansfield, MA on it (not Boston). That particular stop on the tour was at The Tweeter Center (aka Great Woods. It lasted a few years before it became Comcast Center and finally Xfinity Center. Let's play "the event space formally known as...". LOL). The tour was also with Moby as they were doing Area2 together that summer. I didn't get to go to Mansfield, as I was in summer school (yes, I took Saturday summer school classes). So when the tour came back around to the Orpheum (a few months later), they never bothered to change the shirt.
So yeah, it can be a double edged sword, seeing musicians and buying the swag.
Back to Tuesday.
I was tempted on getting the other black shirt, which had white writing on it. It was a rip on the "My Brain is Like 90% Song Lyrics". The difference is, this band shirt said something like "My Brain is like 90% Indigo Girls Lyrics".
Don't quote me on that because I know I'm misquoting it myself.
But now that I think about it, having had an email conversation with my cousin, I wish I bought that shirt when I bought the other one (so total would have been $80 if I bought both. We're now over the limit of the concert ticket plus I'm in a better seat, for those keeping monetary track). I debated the purchase on the night of, and now it's something I know I should have gotten. I didn't realize how true to form that idea really is (mostly).
Also, the same concept can be said about Bowie songs too. So it’s not like it’s just one band. I’m too overloaded with random / useless trivia.
When some of the older songs were played, I had completely forgotten about them. There is one song that wasn't sung, and that's "Chickenman" off of Rites of Passage (track 9). I laugh because this song is so obscure and so not even on anyone's radar, yet, I've got this rubber chicken keychain that's been hanging out in my car since 2001 (the release date on the Amazon keychain says 2021, but trust me, there are other vendors who sell the exact same one. I remember explicitly it was in 2001 when I got him). I named him Chickenman, after the song.
He was originally on the zipper pull of a hoodie before someone (not me) broke him off. Don't ask me why he was a dangler on a hoodie, but I rocked the hell out of it. Once he broke, he jumped in my car and has been my riding mate ever since.
So another squirreled post that proves that there are times in your life where you need to just grab the poultry by the chain and run with it... almost like saying "commit or GTFO".
A thing that caused me to be out past my normal night time driving range (I try not to drive at night because I can't see well) and past my normal bed time (don't laugh; I'm in bed by 8:30 some days. Florida has gotten to me. #old).
The thing I did, was big enough to warrant forgetting all of the above and risk it all: I went to the Indigo Girls concert on Tuesday.
This concert was is in support of their 2020 album, Look Long.
All because... you know.. a certain crisis that stopped the world for a couple years prohibited people from playing. *cough*cough* No names... no names. ~Waves it off ~
So this was the bounce back promotion tour.
It is was my first (ever) Indigo Girls concert. The last concert I went to was the Live On Mars thing in 2019. I did go to see Mrs. Doubtfire: The Musical about a month ago, but that's a different event bucket I put things in.
As per usual lately, this concert was at the Barbara B Mann theater on the Florida Southwestern State College (formally Edison Community College) campus. It's pretty big of a theater but can pack a pricy punch for certain artists.
Since living in Fort Myers and getting opportunity to see live shows, I've had to pick and choose who and what I want to see, because there's no way I justify paying close to $100 to sit in the balcony area (or $120 in the Mezzanine), let alone over 500 to sit in the orchestra.
Please don't take this the wrong way or misinterpret it. It all depends on the event and seat section. Big name artists bring out big name prices. Some do keep the cost low, but then the merch can run you the cost of another ticket if you're not careful (like what happened for Indigo Girls. LOL).
I know it's no comparison because it's been a couple decades. The highest I've paid for a ticket was Elton John at the Fleetcenter in 2005. That was $125 for the Loge section (which was still not so close). Plus train tickets from my house to Boston and back home. Yet, I paid $66 for Bowie at the Orpheum in 2002 (Orchestra seat) and then $76 for a Floor seat at the FleetCenter. Both db concerts were while I was still in school so I only had to worry about train fare from school to the venue. Therefore, loosely speaking, Elton clocked in at the most expensive and the longest concert (almost 4 hours).
I know, I know... "if you really want to see the band or comic, you should just spend the money and go. Otherwise you'll regret it". Which is true for a few musicians. I wish the Goo Goo Dolls would come back around because they were here in 2011 and I didn't know enough about the area at that point, so I missed the concert. I had just been here for a month and wasn't going adventuring out as much as I should have been. Otherwise I would have gone. Barenaked Ladies is coming with Toad the Wet Sprocket in October. That's a "high end" ticket (the aforementioned mezzanine price) but I've seen BNL play City Hall Plaza (twice) back in the mid 1990s. It'd be cool to see them in Florida, but October is too far away right now for me to make that call, especially for said $120.
I've totally side tracked. But it's also kind of relevant.
The seat I was in, was Left Loge. A box seat of sorts. I did have the row to myself, for no extra cost (my seat was $66 after taxes). I had a good view of the stage and can't complain about sight lines since there are seats in bad viewing area and people still pay for it.
It's the experience, I know.
The pictures were taken with my iPhone 11 and I edited (hastily) a woman in front of me, but I didn't do a lot of editing for the rest of the photos. It's just to give an example of where I was sitting. They were taken as people piled in, so it's before the concert started.
I've also got a video of the intermission and a couple songs from the end of the concert. I'll put that video up after I type some more.
As you can see from the pictures, I was in a good spot. The backdrop on the stage is a bookcase of all banned books, said someone at one point in the night. I don't know what the books are that are on the backdrop, but it's totally relevant for what is going on in society lately, as well as it jived with one of the songs (Go from Come On Now Social *). They actually introduced Go as "this is for the teachers and librarians".
The building being packed was a good thing, but I did have to laugh as when I sat in the lobby waiting to get in to the seats. All I saw were waves of old lesbians (old like over 50). I'm not being mean, please don't take it that way. But you have to take it for what it is - this is an LBGTQ band so the rainbow fans come to hear the band play. There were baby dykes and gay men and quite a few straight couples. The box area I was in was seemingly all straight. There's nothing wrong with it, as it was definitely a sight to see for social experiments. I wasn't expecting to see so many hetero couples, quite honestly. My straightness did not feel compromised at any point in the concert. I was perfectly fine and thought it was too bad my friends weren't here to see all the different people. Again, it was definitely a social experiment for me - where you sit on a back wall and just people watch. My friends would have entertained quite the conversations with me about the array of people. I enjoyed that.
Sorry; I squirreled again.
I know I mentioned an intermission. That's because they had Lucy Wainwright Roche open for them.
Lucy comes from a musician family (yes, those Wainwrights - Loudon III is her dad, Rufus is a half brother). She talked about her life recently, as she did some tiny tours with her mother and Lucy had a baby, where she stated "let this be a PSA not to go on tour with your mother and your baby" because it was also when we all got out of lockdown and she wanted to get out and tour. Lucy is actually pretty good of a musician. I bought her two CDs that were promoted on the merch table. I honestly didn't know anything about her until I heard her play. I had to google her name, which is how I read who her famous family is.
She did half the set with the Indigo Girls as backup so once she ended her 30 minute opener, she came back out to perform with the band.
The Indigo Girls also had Lyris Hung, a violinist, perform majority of the songs as well. Lyris also did her own solo song at one point in the concert. It was pretty haunting of a tune, and she took her time to set it up. She used some sort of pedal board to create each type of strum she needed before going full out into playing. It was amazing but it did take a few minutes to get it the way she wanted.
The overall length of the concert was from 7:30 to 10:30 with a 20 minute intermission, so it was really 7:30 to 10:10.
There was a mix of songs played, most from the new album, some from the vaults.
The Girls played well, although Emily did warble through a few songs. Amy played some angrily, I don't know why. But their sound was totally on point. No low points or cut offs from the microphones. You could hear everything fine (you'll notice it in the video I'll post - no distortions).
They also had some guitar problems through out some of the songs they played. They said that the guitars weren't tuned properly and one of Amy's actually had a break in the stock head (I think she said?).
Since there was no backing musicians, the Girls switched instruments for every song, so it took a minute or two to tune it to the right chords needed.
Emily actually came in a little early for "Get out the Map" because Amy was tuning her mandolin and talking about touring and how they were going to play Seth Myers the next day when Emily started singing. #awkwardoverstep.
But the whole tuning incidents were shrugged off, as if they were back to playing small venues (clubs and bars). There's nothing wrong with it as it was part of the overall scheme of the night - the magic of it all. It grounds everyone because you know it's not autotuned or fixed in any way. The making sure everything is up to snuff is warranted because they're known for their folk songs and guitar/ukulele/mandolin/ etc. The tuning didn't prohibit anything except when they tried to play one of the songs, Amy was having trouble with the aforementioned guitar, so they didn't play that song. I forget which one it was, but they marched on and circled back to it a little later.
I guess I will put the video in here, as I have it uploaded. It was taken on my iPhone 11. I only edited the wording into the video and nothing more. So you'll see Lyris Hung, Amy Ray, Emily Saliers and Lucy Wainwright Roche in the video. Left to right.
I do have to admit I was a little nervous to go at first. Not for fear of anything bad happening to me; it is hard to explain. I did enjoy the concert and would like to see them again. It's too bad I won't be in Boston in the fall, as they're taking a 2 month hiatus and starting back up in August. That leg of the tour will be co-headlining with Melissa Etheridge. That's going to be a wicked cool concert. I guess the question is, "do I want to spend the $$$ plane ticket? Then the $$ for the concert? Hotel? Etc?" Big decision but I'll keep the blog posted on that update...
I think that's it... since I did such a roundabout review.
Now go out side and play!
Cheers;
See Also:
- The * for Come On Now Social isn't widely available on Amazon, so if you want to hear Go it's track 13 on Retrospective
