LOL, catching up is hopeless! I typed most of this the day after the concert but have been busy travelling and then today doing errands that this is the first chance I've had to post it. Even though it's moment may be gone, I thought what they heh!
Squirrel Nut Zippers is playing across town a bit and SamburuSunset and I head over there and catch them playing in a 1940s small ballroom with a bar to the right of it and a record/vintage clothing shop on the other. They haven’t played together for several years so it’s great to hear them play some of their repertoire (Lid on It, Prince Nez, Danny Diamond, My Drag, Ghost of Steven Foster, Hell, Fat Cat Keeps Getting Fatter, and so on). They sound good, look darling, and the place is jumping with all sorts of people from bikers, to vintage dandies, to new-Rat Packrers, to the Abercrombie set, to the swing-dancers and everyone else in between and beyond.
The Police show, the following night, was BIRTHDAY-RIFFIC!!! We met up at the Hard Rock with a group from Police.com and had a bite and a few bevvies: Donna, Nightrunner, Moeh, OutlandoGirl & others. Outside the venue with DirtyMartini—in case any scnetters spotted the flag to sign—we start to get crazy with excitement. We had to ask for assistance how to get to the floor (well, it wasn’t exactly self-explanatory for this venue plus we were starting to lose our minds! We have a few one-word text conversations like "omg" and "k" <grin> and I hear “GINA!” and turn to my left and see Donna and co. are just in the 100 lvl section a few feet over from me!
I’ll say this once, and then not again here: I had the bad luck of sitting behind the biggest shit-faced concert asshats I’ve ever seen (and believe me, I’m seasoned music gal)…I told SamburuSet the details of their asshattery (including standing on seats, flailing arms hitting everyone in a 5 foot radius, and the worst gas I’ve ever been subject-to) and she was just in stitches as to the levels the ridiculousness reached…I was super proud of myself though, I said, to myself…SuperCat…you are on the floor, for Stewart’s birthday, the last concert until the European leg…do not let these f-wads take anything from your night…and then proceeded to block them out entirely which, at certain points, took all I had! Whenever you are tempted to indulge in getting , chanting "I am nothing," "I am nothing" works wonders <wink>
Fiction Plane was really great tonight, they had so much energy, they really rocked the joint hard. Joe is really taking to the front-man thing, they are playing to the whole arena, including back, so much more effectively, and tonight they played a great rendition of Cigarette that I’ve not heard. Usually (well at least the other 9 times I’ve seen them thus far), Joe tells the story behind the song…sometimes varying what parts he emphasizes, oftentimes just a few words, and usually just talks to the crowd with the music holding in the back. Tonight, he instead worked in the story into a new set of verse, sang it, and I thought it was the best live-version I’ve heard. I am not one of the people that think he sounds like Sting, really, sure, he’s talented like Sting, etc. but when he sang these new verses tonight, it stopped me in my tracks, how he wailed, it was uncanny. And great! I wince everytime Joe climbs up on top of the stacks and jumps off at the end, he lands precariously often enough and his cord sometimes hangs down in the way—I always hold my breath!
In the interim between sets I chat with Donna and overall just try not to explode into tiny fragments, at least until after the show. It is hard. I squealed a little when I saw Jeff Seitz bring out a handful of mylar birthday balloons and place them to the right of Stewart’s kit, behind Sting’s stack. I get kinda drum-geek excited when he pops out, I mean he’s legendary himself. And I just get a kick out of how he takes one, big, loud thwack at each drum in the kit and a few of the percussion goodies before Gong-Time. There’s just something so perfect about it and crack a smile every time.
Opening gong was one of the best crashes I’ve heard, it just pierced the atmosphere and inaugurated the night-long cacophony of the audience. The energy, excitement, anticipation was tangible; it was, as Henry Padovani (my second favorite Policeman) would say, “a really moment.” That’s the best way that one could characterize the entire night, a strange, almost incapturable, inarticulable energy of the then-present, an intensity.
Set list was the same as it has been but they sounded fierce and sharp, the three of them. Stewart seemed to be enjoying himself a lot: there were many smiles and grins, and other assorted related faces. Sting announces it’s Stewart’s birthday and the place simply supernovas. Stewart warms up the gong before Wrapped (I love the gong but, damn, it’s a monster and except for the opening super-crash, it seems almost impossible to get it going full-tilt for a full-crash in its other appearances) and he cracks the big-ass mallet before the final whack. Good gawd dayum, the man could break a baseball bat, I’m convinced!
Sting sings Happy Birthday about a dozen times in So Lonely (during the lo lo lo part). And it was good: the whole place goes wild. Stewart says it’s the best birthday ever but, really, we are the one’s getting the best birthday present ever, either belated or in advance. And then there was the stone cold point that everyone in the 20k odd capacity Q saw, it really was as if time stood still [see figure 1, "the" photo] at least for me along with anyone else who damn well knew what was happening! Then, just when I thought I could not really be surprised--excited, pumped, overflowing, yes--after the count off in Next to You they play a few measures of Dead End Job. Tears pop out of my eyes...I was just telling hubby, not only a few days earlier during the Police radio marathon that there'd be absolutely no way Sting could sing "I don't wanna be no millionaire, I don't wanna own no mint" when he suggested that it'd be freaking awesome if they played Dead End Job! While they only played a part of it and Sting only sang "I dont want no dead end job, I don't want to be no number" hearing him thump away that bass line, and the three of them bust that out, was just literally out of this world.
Love to the Stewarters who shared the awesome experience with: SamburuSunset, DirtyMartini, NancyRose, Donna and everyone who I hung out with in Cleveland…I will always remember this as the biggest & best birthday party I’ve ever been to with the fondest of memories!
I kick around Cleveland the following day after everyone departs homeward and get ready for the Gogol Bordello show at the House of Blues later that night. I get there when the doors open and DJ Scratchy is spinning some great stuff. I look around and it looks like Hot Topic exploded in the joint. I don’t say this as some grumpy I-at-least-saw-second-wave-punk-bands-live-holier-than-thou-farty-fart, but I do start to feel kinda old for a second scanning the mostly under 20ish crowd. I edge to the back a bit since I don’t really know how wild the floor is going to be from start. Once they hit the stage, however, holeeee crap, I don’t care. I’m bouncing up and down, punching my arm in the air, making my way to the front. They are just absolutely insane and this is by far the best club-show I’ve been too…the energy is crazy, the show unbelievable: they are better than they are cracked up to be, blazing through Start Wearing Purple, Sally, Not a Crime, Think Locally Fuck Globally, Avenue B, Immigrant Punk and others…(I just cannot even begin to explain so I’ll link a clip from the 9:30 Club and except for the suspect sound of the recording and the insane energy of them live, it at least gives you a bit of an idea:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DbRbhunk57Q )
Special thanks to PapaCat and DirtyMartini who kept me entertained texting with me while I was on the everlating-bus home! And Dive, who…don’t ask how…texts greetings from beeeaaauuutiul Quito, Ecuador! In short, since I only quote from the best: THANK YOU, STEWART and I LOVE YOU GUYS!!
