...and a rainstorm that won’t quit, driving through a river that was once Hollywood Blvd., 3 hours of sleep, and an umbrella that didn’t seem too willing to be along for the ride.
All that, plus a very intimate show with Chan Marshall of Cat Power and standing in the rain with a wristband to purchase yet another wristband to go to the Tori Amos CD signing. Yes, that’s right, I got the wristband for the Tori signing! But first, I’ll start with hour one of my 15 hour adventure:
If you thought the traffic was bad in Los Angeles, try driving through a river in the traffic. I took my mom along with me to the Cat Power concert because she’d been saying for awhile that she wanted to go out and see some live shows. The only other person I know who knows anything about Cat Power is my friend Francesca, but she’s broke from buying art supplies so she had to bail on me. Although, I did see another girl from my Graphic Design class at the show—I thought that was pretty cool. But back to the rain... I’m serious, I thought we were going to drift through the intersection of Hollywood and Western. The poor people trying to cross the street coming from the subway looked like they could have used a canoe. And that intersection wasn’t the only one flooded—every major intersection within a mile of there was nothing but water. We might not be getting as much rain as much of the county gets on a yearly basis, but remember, Southern California is drought country and the region just isn’t built to divert this much water!
So we finally drift over to the Knitting Factory (we would have gotten there faster if I’d thought to bring paddles) at 7:30pm, 30 minutes before the show was supposed to start. Since it was General Admission I was afraid we weren’t going to get very good spots and the line was already getting pretty long. The rain was kind enough to stop for us to stand in line outside since I forgot my umbrella. They finally let us in at 8:15. We found a prime spot about 4 people deep and 15 feet from the stage since a lot of people made a b-line for the bar at the back. The opening act was a guy named Bill Swanson. He jammed on his acoustic guitar and had a pretty good set, despite the rude people talking in the back. I tried looking him up on the ‘net but apparently there are a lot of Bill Swanson's and none of them play the guitar. I thought it was kinda funny, though, that Chan has a deeper voice than he does!
I think it was 9:45 by the time Chan finally came out (2 hours and 15 minutes of standing, if you’re keeping track). The first thing that bothered me right off the bat was that she didn’t have a main light on her, just the colored mood lights up on the stage. And it was like that the whole night. It was rather frustrating because although I was but 20 feet from her, I didn’t feel like she was singing to me. I’d heard she was a very insecure performer, which is apparently true because her hair practically covered her face and when she played at the piano I was staring at the back of her head. Her voice did sound absolutely beautiful, though. What I could hear made up for what I couldn’t see—I swear her voice sounded exactly as it does on her records. She played a few songs on the piano that I didn’t know, all very beautiful if not oddly similar, and it wasn’t until the fifth song that I recognized “Names”. She seemed to be getting bored and she often wouldn’t finish the songs she was playing. What I though was pretty cool, though, was the way she transitioned from song to song by improvising on the piano or guitar without stopping to wait for the obligatory applause. The only times she really stopped playing were to switch instruments, take a sip of her drink and say “Cheers!”, or to apologize for the similarity of the songs in her set list. The songs I recognized were a different version of “I Don’t Blame You”, “Maybe Not”, “The Party”, and “The Colors And The Kids” which she played after someone yelled out from the back. “I don’t even know if I remember that one,” she said as she promptly set aside her guitar and fiddled with the piano before settling into the song. There was one really cool piano bit she did in the middle of her set that I really hope is on her new album!
I could tell my mom was getting a little restless and I told her afterwards that it would have been a lot better if she’d had her band with her. All in all, I did enjoy the performance. She’s such a talented musician and singer, I just wish she’d have turned up the heat a little bit! The show ended at 11:30 (4 hours of standing) and we didn’t get home until after midnight (damn rain). I didn’t manage to get to sleep until 2am, and three hours later my alarm went off. It was time for my next wet adventure!
I finally set out on the road at 6:30 in the morning, 30 minutes later than I’d planned, only to get stuck behind an accident on the freeway. By 7:20 I finally made my way past Fairfax on Sunset and my entire body started shaking. Some people’s palms get sweaty when they’re nervous, I shake. I was half-excited to be on my way to get in line and half-terrified that I was too late. Luckily, the line wasn’t that long when I showed up at Tower Records. I quickly found parking (gasp!) and I didn’t even have to pay since the machine was broken (bigger gasp!). It was really cute to see all the “Tori Amos” stickers on the back of people’s cars. I stuffed my school bag and my umbrella in the trunk and headed over to the line.
I estimated I was about 100 people deep and there weren’t too many people showing up behind me. Of course, I realized why people weren’t too anxious to be out there, because not 5 minutes after standing in line it started to rain again! I took my chances and left the line to rush back to my car and grab my umbrella that I had mindlessly avoided bringing with me the first time. When I got back to the line there were only about five new people. The wristband girl came over and gave me a wristband with a number (I thought the concept of having a wristband to get a wristband was funny, but nice since it meant people couldn’t save spaces for half a dozen of their friends). I asked my line buddy—whom I later learned was named Joey—how many final wristbands they were giving out. He said a total of 250. I looked at my own pre-wristband wristband: #116! All I had to do was stand in line for another 2 hours in the rain, purchase a second version of The Beekeeper on top of the one I already have, and I was set to go!
Two hours in line is a long time, but luckily my line buddy, Joey, was very friendly and had lots of Tori stories to share! Apparently, after seeing her at a show back in 1992, he ran into Tori in a ice cream parlor on Santa Monica and they talked for like 20 minutes! He gave her some of the jewelry that he makes, and ever since then he sees her almost every time she comes to town and gives her a new jewelry piece! So you can bet I’ll be looking for him at the signing and hopefully get an “in”. I don’t wanna use the guy in a bad way or anything, but you never know!
So, tired and wet, I left Tower at 9:40 and headed to school, only to arrive in class at exactly 10:15 when my class started; and the school isn’t even very far away! As for the stupid umbrella, I left in my next class and got drenched coming back from lunch. I think the thing is cursed.
Nevertheless, I now have in my possession a green paper wristband. According to the paper they handed out, we’re allowed to get the album signed plus one other item—I’m brining my Little Earthquakes vinyl LP! I’m so excited! Do you guys have any suggestions for something clever for me to say to her?
