Okay, I need to do a little catching up here.
Last Friday night I went out with a few friends to a concert at the Cedar Cultural Center. We saw Andrew Bird play. I was to meet my friend Suzanne, her boyfriend Jim, and her friend Kaari at the Center at about 8:30. Of course, being who I am, I got there a little early. I drove around and found a parking spot and just listened to music in my car for a while. Then I got a call from Suzanne saying that they hadn’t left and asking for directions. So I sat in my car for a little longer listening to music.
Suzanne called back in a while asking for more specific directions and I unfortunately couldn’t help them out much. I waited a bit and then started walking towards the Center to just wait for them. When I got to Cedar Avenue I crossed in front of a car and I looked in and saw a girl and a guy. The guy looked vaguely familiar and for some reason I felt a connection to the car. When I got to the curb the girl driving the car honked at me. I looked over and I heard my name being called. I looked to the back seat window and there was Suzanne’s face leaning out. I walked over and hopped in. I said hi to everyone and we took off looking for a parking spot. After driving around for 10 minutes we ended up parking directly across the street from my car.
We all walked to the Center and picked up our tickets from willcall. Just as we walked back they got done setting up for Andrew Bird, so we timed it perfectly. The place was packed, it was a sold out show, so we hung at one of the back walls for support. Then Andrew came on and I was blown away.
Suzanne had kind of told me what to expect, but I really wasn’t prepared. He got up there and talked a little bit and was holding a violin. There was a guitar behind him and a xylophone, or glockenspiel, or bells beside him.
I won’t describe every song, but I’ll describe basically how he works on stage. He starts with his violin in his hand holding it like a ukulele. He presses a pedal in front of him and then picks a few bars. Then he hits another pedal in front of him and picks another few bars while the music he just played plays in the back ground. He does it again and ends up with 3 violins being played together. Then he turns his violin up in the traditional hold and plays it with his bow. He does the same thing that he did with the picking. When he’s done he basically has a symphony of violins playing behind him. Every song was different and it was like he was just jamming with himself up there. It was quite amazing.
When he was done setting up the violin section he would set the violin down and whip out his Gibson (I believe) guitar and starts playing and singing along with the violins. Every once in a while he would pause the violins and start them up again, depending on how the song was going. He would also play on his xylophone every once in a while and whistle along. He was seriously the most amazing whistler I had ever heard.
So the concert was great and Andrew was just fun to watch. Afterwards we headed to uptown to have a snack and a drink at Rudolphs. My friends got the last spot in the parking lot and I went off in search of street parking. After about 20 minutes of driving around in vain I called Suzanne and headed for home. Alas.
The night before, Thursday night, I went to see The Clumsy Lovers at O’Gara’s Garage. I met Chey and Kiki at Chey’s place and we headed to the spot. When we got there nothing was going on and it looked like they were just setting up or something. So we headed to the pub because the two ladies hadn’t had anything to eat.
As we wandered around we couldn’t find any place to sit down. Luckily I was with two good looking women. They charmed a young man sitting by himself in a booth and we had a place to sit. The ladies ordered food and I had a Guiness and we listened to the guy talk for the next hour or two. It was pretty entertaining.
At just before 11pm we headed back to the music area and again, nothing was going on and it looked like they were setting up…or tearing down. Chey asked the bartender, just to make sure, and he said that the Clumsy Lovers were coming out soon. We sat and talked and waited and finally the group came on. They were just as good and entertaining as when I had seen them out in Bozeman a few times. Unfortunately the crowd wasn’t nearly as good as it always was in Bozeman, so that was disappointing.
The night was cut short when the ladies I was with decided it was too late and they were too tired to continue. I regretted driving together when we all headed out after only about 30 minutes of the show. It reminded me of having to leave the Crystal Method after only 15 minutes this last New Year’s Eve because Brian’s girlfriend-at-the-time was tired. It was only 2:15am!
So alas, but I’m glad I got to see them again.
