Of my four concerts this month, this was the one I was least looking forward to. Not that I wasn't looking forward to it, but Amanda Palmer doesn't have the same history with me as Blondie, Fiona Apple or Garbage do. That being said, I still couldn't resist going, especially since $25 isn't that much for a show. And what a show.
Craziest show I think I have ever been to. So many acts. So many artists playing the whole night through.
Jherek Bischoff opened and I am in love with his solo bass song with loops that he played. I need to find that somewhere. I got his CD, as well as the CDs of the other two openers.
Strong opener, great songs with a great performance. Amanda MC'd the whole event, popping up on stage a lot, and during this set, she wandered the crowd. I've only been to the Fillmore once before, but I knew where to stand. The left of the stage, because that's the stage entrance. This means that everyone in the band passes by me. If I were braver, I totally would have said something, especially to Neil Gaiman, but I'm not brave, and I kind of like to let people do their own thing, cause I know a ton of other people will be all over them. (My exception to this so far has been Jenny Owen Youngs, with whom I had the most awkward handshake ever.)
So yeah, I could have taken a deep breath and bumped into Neil Gaiman and I didn't say a word. My roommate wants to murder me just a little bit. Back to the show though, Amanda left the crowd mingling early to jump on stage to play drums for Jherek because no one could find the drummer. That was pretty cool.
After his set, there was a brief set up time, and then we had Simple Pleasure. I also bought their CDs but enjoyed them much more live. They had a lot of energy and some crazy stage antics.
Then a brief bit of history with MC Amanda, and she brought out the Daredevil Chicken Club, a husband and wife duo that used to MC the Dresden Doll shows, if I remember correctly. They did a banana spitting trick that involved shooting bananas into each other's mouths and then at the audience and then did some costume changes and they both had fake genitals on their skin colored underwear. There were some suggestive dances and poses and then he lost all of his clothes and bolted off stage.
I'm not sure if they were a pre-planned part of the festivities, there was something about the way they were introduced that made me wonder, cause earlier in the show, Amanda had Neil Gaiman up on stage for a bit. Apparently, earlier in the day, they had done a free show and signing at Amoeba Music on Haight St and had been asked to participate in the "What's in Your Bag?" segment and had won a $75 gift card.
As Amanda put it, she doesn't really have room for stuff on tour. Her first thought had been to get some shirts so she could put off laundry for a few more days, but alas, nothing in her size. This actually worked out better for the audience. She and Neil went around and picked a couple of things up, a rare vinyl, some Thompson Twins vinyls (Neil had nothing to do with this pick,) and a few CDs. While the other opening acts were playing, Neil was going to go to the bathrooms in the venue and hide the goodies. Amanda would tweet the locations of everything and there was supposed to be a grand old scavenger hunt. I think it went pretty well for a last minute, yet well announced plan, but I think I overheard that it was hard to hide stuff because fans were waiting. Either way, pretty neat.
After this, we had the pleasure of being introduced to Ronald Reagan. Amanda said that as crazy as the evening had been, nothing had prepared us for these guys, and in a sense she was right. Ronald Reagan bills itself as Boston's Premiere 80's Pop Saxophone Duo. They covered Total Eclipse of the Heart and I was sold. I also bought their CD. I love 80's music, and I don't apologize for it. I've never liked saxophones before, but I wouldn't turn down another show from these guys, cause it was awesome. Especially when the audience started singing. They also did this to a song or two in the set up times between bands.
Sorry for the quality of the picture
Then we had Amanda and she puts on a hell of a show. She crowd surfed in a huge flowing shawl thing, and it looked pretty sweet. Sometime during her show, she brought up Neil, and they had a sort of depressing moment. Actually, scratch that, it was totally depressing.
At the merch table that night, they had a box, and they asked that everyone write down the worst thing that had ever happened to them in their room. It was rough. And it was hard for them to calm down the crowd and convince them to be serious for this part, but it was intense, especially once the crowd figured it out.
After this, Neil sang a song. It was a deliciously morbid tale of murder, and Amanda accompanied him on ukelele. At this point, the crowd had moved forward, so I didn't quite have the view I had before, but the crowd didn't grow as much as it usually does for the main act. Something that the opening act mentioned. People showed up early to see Everything. And it was well worth it.
I found out that I don't really know a lot of her stuff. I knew the stuff she played from the Dresden Dolls, and what she played from "Who Killed Amanda Palmer" but that was about it. I was totally stoked to hear all those songs though. The crowd was awesome, and the most eclectic crowd I have ever seen. There were harajuku clothes, there were dapper men, there were corsets, there were pop culture shirts, metal shirts, dresses, skirts, and some people that were barely clothed. It's really a crowd you'd have to see to believe, but it was great.
During the encore, Amanda brought out her merch girl. She had everyone sing happy birthday (again, it had been someone else's birthday as well) and then said that it had come to her attention about two weeks ago that the merch girl had always dreamed of crowd surfing. So guess what? She got to crowd surf for her birthday after blowing the candles out on her cake. It was pretty sweet.
Being that this was the Fillmore, I got a free poster when I left. It's an interesting mix of eyes, hands and elephants. For the four CDs I bought, it was only $25, so even though I prefer most of them live, it was still a good bargain for me, and well worth the cost.
Also, as a bonus, when I told my mom about the concert the first time, she thought the name sounded familiar. After the concert, I mentioned Neil Gaiman and that struck all sorts of bells. My mom said Amanda's full name, which includes a curse, and that was also pretty awesome, but also kind of weird cause I'm not used to hearing my mom curse.
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