Everything I Try to Do, Nothing Seems to Turn Out Right

Okay...here goes the recollection of all my weekend adventures.

Chicago
Bright and early Thursday morning, Chris and I got up and drove to the Metro. Our Decemberists-show friends had arranged for all of us to meet out front at 10am to wait in line for the show that night. It was perfect timing, for not long after we arrived, Chris Funk and Colin Meloy walk by (looking a bit bleary). We say hello and they walk down the street. Throughout the day, we see all of the Decemberists (and the Diamond girls), and my friend Erica got all of their autographs on a vinyl copy of Hazards of Love (which one of the Decemberists' roadies gave us for showing up so early). But, their were a couple of definite highlights. Shara Worden talked with us several times throughout the day, which was lovely. And Chris Funk, who walked past us several times, stopped once and when Chris asked if he was alright (he was looking a bit surly), told us he was hungover and chatted with us for awhile. One of my friends semi-forced him to accept a cupcake and told him stories about her not having herpes. He pointed at me at one point and asked "Haven't I met you a couple of times?" So, the moral of the story is that Chris Funk remembers me and that he had (and basically initiated) a conversation with us!

Chris and his cupcake


The cadre outside Metro


Now, the day was sailing along, but it was a bit doomed. I bought two tickets as soon as I could during the pre-sale through Music Today. For some reason, the only option I had was to accept Will Call tickets. I was a bit nervous about this and found out that night that I had every reason to be. Metro had a terrible, baffling, and incredibly unfair policy of opening the Will Call office at the same time as the doors. This meant that the people who were there all day, who bought tickets as soon as they could, and had no choice about their delivery options were screwed. I went to the Will Call window as soon as doors opened and watched a lady fumble around looking through tickets. She didn't find mine and told me I had to go out to the box office (which is a separate office next door to the venue). I ran out, ducked under a barricade, fell on the concrete and kind of somersaulted back on my feet, went to the box office, and was forced to deal with a nasty troll of a woman, who took her sweet time and told me I had to go back to the Will Call window. Chris and I rush back into the venue (but not before being harassed by a couple of security guards who were overzealous as well as incompetent), and find that there are no tickets, Metro employees don't communicate with each other, and end up getting my name checked off a list that was held by a different employee before we are allowed to enter. We rush up and are able to cut thought and get to the front, but we are now a bit to the right of center on a barricade (which was disappointing--it seems the Decemberists have reached a level of fame where there will always be a rail set up and we won't be able to stand against the stage). This was okay, except that when the Decemberists came on their staging was slightly different than usual (it's a small stage and they have a lot of equipment), and we were directly in front of Chris Funk's amps, which meant that we could definitely hear Chris (and at some points only Chris) throughout the set. It was a great show that began with "The Tain," included a brand new tune called "The Calamity Song," and ended with a second encore of "The Mariner's Revenge Song." All in all a great day with some great frustration in the middle.

On Friday, we drove down to Bloomington, IN to see our friend Hatch and to spend the night on our way to Indianapolis on Saturday. It was a very fun visit and it was nice to see the IU campus (Chris and I had never been to Bloomington and we both thought it was a very charming college town--complete with chipmunks!).

Indianapolis
We arrived at the Murat around noon and met up with a couple of girls from the Decemberists' message board (one of which was sympathetic to my recent troubles there, which made me feel a lot better about that situation).

Orate represented


We weren't expecting to see any Decemberists during the day since the door we waited outside was on the opposite side of the building as where the tour buses were so there was no need to walk past us and also there was nothing interesting near our side of the venue. Hatch had told us about about Mass Ave., which is a street next to the Murat that is lined with interesting things, so when we got hungry, Chris and I walked up and down looking for food and surveying the area. We stopped by the front of a shop and Chris peered in to check out its wares. I meanwhile, took a map of the street from just inside the door and was looking at it for a place to get food from. Chris turns around and I hear him say, "Oh, hey Colin." Colin Meloy walked up to us and began a conversation!! He asked us if there was anything we'd like to hear at the show, and I told him that we had just been talking about how none of us (Chris and I as well as the orate girls) had ever heard the band perform "Everything I Try to Do, Nothing Seems to Turn Out Right." He let us know he'd try to get it on the setlist but that it was a bit of a long shot since it had been many years since they'd ever played it together. Then, he left to go check out a record store and we went and ate some Subway. Later in the day, Chris and I decided to go to the music shop to stretch our legs and check out what an Indianapolis record store has to offer. While perusing, I looked up and saw Anne Briggs (her eponymous LP) faced out. I have been meaning to listen to her since Colin is a big fan and her EP The Hazards of Love had a hand in inspiring the Decemberists' album. So, I decided this was a pretty good sign that I should buy it and did. Perhaps Colin Meloy, while shopping there earlier, had purposely put that CD on display for someone to find or perhaps it was a coincidence. We walked back and waited some more, and then we were able to get prime position (no unprofessional and incompetent employees to deal with this time) for a great show. Hazards sounded amazing and Shara kicked a couple parts up a notch by belting out some extra notes. The second set was great and included Colin talking directly to Chris and I during the show. He told us that he tried his best to get our request in and someone right behind us in the audience caught it on film. This person uploaded several videos from the show and I think that all of them feature Chris' head in the right side of the frame.



We left right after the show to begin the four hour drive home and stopped in Anderson, IN to get some fast food. Now, I've seen some strange things in my life, but was pretty taken aback by this town not too far north of Indy. Every fast food joint in town was packed, both inside (if their dining room was open) and in the drive-thru. Every single place had at least ten cars in the drive-thru lane. Apparently, there had been a concert as well as some mixed martial arts show earlier that night. We finally got home and got some rest and now we await our last Hazards show on Tuesday in Royal Oak, MI. To sum up the weekend: a couple steps closer to having the Decemberists think that we're cool.

Come Hell

My day began early last Monday. I hit the streets of Chicago around 6:30am, breakfasted, parked, and ended up outside the Park West at about 8:15am. I was first in line for the Colin Meloy show that night at 7:30pm. I was alone for about four hours, trying to keep warm as the sun slipped behind a tall apartment building across the street. Eventually, the sun came back and it was a nice day. And eventually (around 2pm), the tour bus carrying Colin, his fiancee Carson Ellis, their son Hank, and the opener Laura Gibson pulled up. I had come bearing gifts and waited by the tour bus to bestow them. Colin came out and I gave him a DVD of 2 concerts from 1982 and 1981: Fleetwood Mac and Stevie Nicks, respectively. I gave him The Berenstain Bears and the Messy Room (one of my favorites) for Hank. And I gave him a Carson Ellis-themed crossword puzzle I had made for Carson. I was also carrying my copy of The Mysterious Benedict Society for Carson to sign (I have Colin's autograph in my copy of God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater). He thanked me and went on the bus to give the crossword and get the autograph and then went inside.



Now, the last time I saw the Decemberists was one of the best nights of my life, so I had pretty high expectations for Monday. It didn't seem to me as though Colin remembered me, and so I was a little disappointed. Later in the day, while I was waiting, I had a couple of other encounters. I met Carson, and she thanked me for the puzzle and told me that she's a crossword fanatic. Then, I saw Carson come by with a nanny and little Hank (who is really, really adorable), I saw Hank come back later in the day and he was crying a bit (which was also adorable), and I saw Carson walk by a couple more times. On one of these occasions, I was reading the book I had brought for all of the waiting: Shirley Jackson's We Have Always Live in the Castle. Carson saw the cover and told me that Colin was reading the same book!

The main event: Laura Gibson opened and was very good, though I think I might've enjoyed the show a bit more if we had been sitting in a cafe rather than standing in the Park West. From what I'd read about her openings for other stops on the tour, I was expecting her to be very quiet and a bit awkward, but she made pretty wonderful onstage "banter." Then, it was on to Colin Meloy. My goal, for a while now, has been to get Colin to like me. I just want to be friends, perhaps correspond regularly, be one of his favorite people...that's all. So, I do my best to come off as smart, interesting, charming, etc. in any encounter with the man. Perhaps I come off as trying too hard, though. I got the impression that Colin found me a bit irritating more than anything else (I should note that I have a tendency to get this impression from a number of people fairly often, so maybe it's just me). It seemed different that night than it has been when I've been in front at Decemberists' shows. This was my second time seeing a Colin solo show, but my first time being right in front. Anyway, the "highlight" of the night happened during "A Cautionary Song." I knew, from watching youtube, that he's been encouraging audience interaction on this tour and that when the line comes up "the sailor's sorry racket calls for maidenhead," he's expected the audience to call for maidenhead. So I did. I yelled out "pussy!" This surprised Colin quite a bit and it took him a minute to laugh and announce that it had made him blush before he could continue with the song. I felt a bit bad since I remembered right after I yelled out that it was an all ages show.

After the show, we stayed around the bus to see Colin and I apologized for making him blush. He told me it was alright and thanked me for yelling out, but then it was a bit awkward as I continued standing there rather than thanking him and leaving. He gave a salute, and I saluted back and then continued to stand there awkwardly. Finally, I did turn around and leave and felt a bit of a fool for not being more smooth. Then, I drove to Joliet and started a saga that shall have to be continued in another post. All in all, it was fantastic, but now I'm trying to get over a bit of an inferiority complex. C'est la vie.

A bit of really good news: when I finally got back to Michigan, I commented on both Colin and Carson's myspace pages, offering my hope that they enjoyed their respective gifts. Later that day, Carson commented on my myspace page saying that she very much enjoyed her crossword puzzle!!!! Hooray!!

My Moon My Man

Chris and I saw Feist at the Fillmore in Detroit on April 10th. I have never been to Detroit, but I thought I knew what to expect since the city is pretty notorious. We arrived at the venue around 2pm and were the only ones there. It was barely drizzling, but it was very windy, which made it a cold, unwelcome day. A little over an hour after we got there, Feist and one of her bandmates rolls up in a taxi. We learned later that they had been at the Motown Museum (somewhere I'd like to go before we move out of this awful state). I had brought along "Ricky Gervais presents The World of Karl Pilkington" (a collection of transcripts from Ricky Gervais' podcasts) for her to sign and she happily obliged. Apparently, she and her bandmate had just been talking about Ricky Gervais and quoting The Office, so she wrote: "'I froze your tears and made a dagger...must you breath, for I need heaven' Feist, quoting David Brent with admiration" and then signed Feist. She was very lovely, but a rather short woman, which I was not expecting at all. She's about 5'2" and I spent the rest of the afternoon marveling at this fact. I had always assumed she would be around my height or taller from videos and such, and she's not that short, and it doesn't make any difference, it's just that I had to change the picture in my head which can sometimes feel odd.

Anyway, the show was great, despite some annoyances. Apparently Detroit crowds get rowdy, so the Fillmore had security guards (read fat guys in a Fillmore t-shirt) stand between the barricade and the stage. This is fine except that one of them stood near the center of the stage, and the stage isn't really high. This is kind of fine except that this particular security guy was hugely ignorant, a douchebag, and a chatty Cathy. He started conversations with us and people around us (including people in the second row) and talked during the opening act and while Feist was onstage. Sample gem: "That guy looked retarded. He sucked. I'm sorry, but it's the truth." I didn't realize that a large man from Detroit who likes hardcore rock (he informed us of this several times) was able to judge and provide such truths. The crowd that night was not terrible, but don't let that fool you: they were bad. At one point, Feist started a song and then instead of singing the lyrics, she sang about how if a performer sings very softly the crowd automatically shuts up since it doesn't know what's going on. She even stepped away from the mic and sang for a while until the crowd finally stopped buzzing. Most impressive, though, was her voice. I knew she could sing, but man, she can sing!

Chris and I also saw Ben Folds at a small college in Michigan this past week. I would write about how the show was good and the audience was perhaps the worst I've ever seen at a show and how Chris and I are ready to never see a show in Michigan again (but then admitted that of course we would go if it was a really good act), but then I would get angry and disappointed in humanity (once again).

To end on a good note, I will mention that I'm getting all geared up for what I hope to be the best night since October 29 of last year. Chris and I will drive to Chicago tomorrow, he'll get on a bus to go to St. Louis and I will hang out with John. Monday, I will be outside of the Park West all day and see Colin Meloy perform in the evening!!!!!!!!! I will then be around Tuesday night and Wednesday in the early afternoon, hopefully seeing friends. So friends, clear your schedules.