Thursday, April 03, 2008

A Fine Frenzy

I had put in to take leave for April 1 to see A Fine Frenzy. I still didn't have my ticket yet even the day before as my leave calendar hadn't been returned to me. As it turned out, the day was approved. I had intended to work 1/2 day during the day shift and only ask for 4 hours off, but my supervisor said it wasn't a denied day and I could take the whole 8 hours off if I wanted to. Since I had a migraine and thought sleep might do me some good, I figured I'd go for broke and take off the entire day. I had spoken with the promoter on Saturday and she didn't think I'd have a problem getting tickets and going by past experience at The Avalon, I left about an hour later than normal, which worked out well. I was still the first one there and just watched people come and go for quite a while even making a trek across the street for some hot chammomile tea.

There was someone outside putting a small window in an office part of the venue that was obviously being remodeled. Then someone came out and painted a part of the outside of the building. I listened to my Zune a little bit until I noticed the battery was low. I wanted to save it in case anyone wanted to hear Mae, or Eisley as I was telling people about those two shows.

After the usual long wait, it was finally time to enter the venue. I was able to get a pretty decent spot just in front of the piano and I figured I'd be able to see Alison (of A Fine Frenzy) reasonably well.

Before Alison came out to sing there were two opening acts. The first was John (and I can't seem to recall the last name at this point) and I think he had a rather nice voice. The gal next to me didn't like that he only "sang two words at a time" but I didn't notice. I was able to get a few good snaps of him.



Then Buddy came out to sing next (no last name given, must "Buddy") and he sang and at the end played a small bit of harmonica.



Then there was a long break where no one was on stage, or setting up - at least that could be seen. Finally the stage was set and Alison and company made their appearance. By that time the venue was beginning to look a bit full. Alison was very cute, smiled a lot, chatted a little between songs and sang sweet melodies. At one point she did a cover of "I Will Follow You Into the Dark" and it was absolutely breathtaking. It gave me chills. After her set ended Alison left the stage, but she didn't make us work too hard for an encore and she was back on the stage with a big smile. She then proceded to do a fairly long encore, including a cover of the Beatles song, "Across the Universe" and everyone was encouraged to sing along.
It was rather nice to be in a concert that was a bit mellower since the usual can-of-sardines, everyone push to the front mentality just wasn't happening there.





After the end of the show, Alison said she would meet everyone at the back. And she was true to her word. She didn't rush anyone, signed autographs and took pictures. She also autographed the cd I purchased and asked if she should address it to Melanie, but I told her signing it would be just fine.
The road manager took a pic of us and as I was walking over to where Alison was, I missed a step and almost fell. Alison kept asking if I was alright and seemed very concerned. I assured her I was fine, just clumsy and she said, "Me, too." We are probably not in the same league on that one, but she was so sweet. :)
Then I headed out the door and prepared myself for the ride home.

Except for the migraine, it was a good day - overall quite relaxing with beautiful music. What more can one ask for?




On the way back I stopped and Sarah Kelly's new cd was in my box. Another great music day. :)

1 comment:

Lauralee said...

I wanted to go to this, but I had to work. Only one more week and my work schedule is back to normal. That will make it so nice. As long as I have the night off I can go to any show I want.