Well yesterday I was lucky enough to get to see what turned out to be one
of the best concerts of my life!
Of course I'm talking about Ani - anyway, so
me and my friend Jessie got to the Arragon following the Gay Pride Parade
(which was so much fun!) at about 6:00pm and the concert didn't start until
7:30pm so we went and joined the alreay huge line, so after about an hour
and 20 minutes of waiting and talking and such we were let in and went directly to the
stage area where we found a spot to sit down on the floor like everyone else
probaly about 10 or so rows back, which wasn't bad AT ALL. I have to say
that the audience was the nicest that I've ever seen at a concert, we were
all talking and laughing together.. and it was mostly girls with the
occasional frat boy scatered around.. and then boyfriends/husbands of the
women there and some actually male ani fans (unfortunately not that many) So
then everyone stood up, the lights went out, and Ani's opening act (The New
Orleans Jazz Band) came out. They were alright, just not at all the kinda
music that I like. The highlight of their set for me was when Ani and Julie
(her keybordist) came out and started dancing together for one or two of
their songs. Finally they were over, and then we began the wait for Ani.
During this time about I dunno 20 some girls took off their shirts and bras
in the front few rows and i was trying to keep cool by
rolling up the sleves on my short sleeved shirt, and I was almost to the
point of rolling up my pants but that just looked retated. So then the
lights went out and everyone started screaming and such and out they came!!
They opened with "Little Plastic Castle" and the screen in the background
had this whole fish tank image..and then they played "Fuel" and then she
started playing some song that like nobody recignized until she started
singing and it was ... "Not a Pretty Girl"!!!!
and during that song some idiot threw one of those glow in the dark
necklaces at her head and so after the song
she said something about how she just doesn't understand why people feel
the need to throw things at performers heads and the only people who are
allowed to do that to her are the people in her personal life..and they are
only allowed to throw shoes and then her guitarist Jason says "Ani, I have
to tell you something.. I - I love you Ani" and she starts laughing and is
like "What?" and then the drummer Andy says "I love you too Ani" and she's
like "oh god.. you know this reminds me of the time when Andy and I went to
go see this singer who's name will remain unknown.."
and then Andy cuts in "Michelle (something I couldn't catch the last name)"
and Ani says "And she'd just become this born again christian and she
started saying how she loved everybody and her band memebers joined in and
had this huge love fest going on and Andy was like wiping a tear away from
his face and I was just like about ready to puke" and then she played "As
Is" and um then she said "I just want you all to know you're here for a really good
cause.. a benefit for air conditioning.. and I just decided that now..which
reminds me of when we were touring London and we were having the sound check
and we could like see our breath and so we went up to the manager of the
place and said *teeth chattering* Um, could we maybe have some heat in here?
and the guy said 'No, this is London, It's supposed to be cold' " and then
she played some song that I'm not sure what it was because I'm a poor Ani
deprived girl and I only have Little Plastic Castle and Not a Pretty Girl
... and that went directly into a shortened version of "Pulse" and then she
introduced this new song as a "song that's not about her for once"
and then she played some new song during which I was feeling really
hypoglycimic so I had to get out of my perfect spot and get something to eat
while I did I heard her playing some other song I didn't know and then "2
Little Girls" which is my second favorite Ani song .. my first being "Glass
House" aka my theme song.
Then I found a kinda okay spot off to the side but sorta close and then Ani
played "Shameless" and "Dilate" but I'm not sure quite when and then she
started talking about this one show a few years ago when this whole naked
folk singer thing started and she said: "it was really hot and I came on
stage and I saw like this whole crowd in the first few rows of girls with
their tits failing and like the cutest thing was that there were this guys
who were trying so hard to hold themselves back and not look at them. and
then the sucurity gards started yelling at the girls for being topless and
then all of the sudden Andy stoped playing and he got up and said 'Leave
them alone man, just leave them alone!!'" And then eventualy towards the end
of the show she played "Shy" and then she said "You know recently I met this
great guy and we fell so completely in love. So we thought that the thing to
do would to just go and get hitched! But then I was doing this interview
with somebdy something from whatever whatever newspaper and he was saying
*puts on this deep manly voice* 'well up don't you think now that you've
become all straight and everything that your fans are going to be really
upset since a good majority of them are man hating, hairy, dykes ?' and I
said 'you know I've been doing all this touring lately and mostly I've just
had fans coming up to me saying how happy they were for me and
'congratulations' so screw them!" and then they played a cover of some
Stevie Wonder song which I didn't know the name of.. and then that was it..
excepting that they came back for an encore which was a different then I'd
ever heard before version of "Gravel" so that's basically it! Oh yeah, and I
also am not pretty much broke cause I bought the black Dilate T Shirt and
the Blue Swan Dive t Shirt and the Cat poster and a Rightous sticker.
Heidi