:firstly ... my Rad-Boy had an article written about him on Tiny Mix Tapes ... i'm all proud of him & his mad mix skills ... it's HERE

My weekend of concert bliss was magical. Beth Orton blew me away, even recovering from bronchitis as she was. Her voice gives me goosebumps & I couldn't have asked for a better setlist or more intimate setting. There were two songs I was intensely hoping to hear, but even when she asked us to consider her our "own personal jukebox" I couldn't bring myself to yell out "It's Not the Spotlight" because I felt it might be rude to ask her to play a song that wasn't an original but a Rod Stewart song that she had covered. The other was "Feel To Believe" which has meant a very lot to me for many years now & because I'm a dork & feel guilty shouting out requests anyway I just swayed & sang along with my huge grin on.

After a jamming encore with her band & the opening act (Willie Mason, very very worth checking out) she came out with just her guitar & I couldn't help but WHOOP loudly with the first plunk of strings. She did "It's Not the Spotlight" & I swear my smile was a painful thing for the duration. There aren't words for how lovely it was & I sang along with the fever of it & then she ran it right into "Feel to Believe" & I just froze. I teared all up & sang along, quietly to myself & got that feeling in the pit of my being, the one that grabs you by the balls & makes your throat & chest seize up because the joy is just so fucking overpowering ... that feeling that sometimes it all works out right & there wasn't anything else going on in the world right then & I couldn't have been happier to be alive.

Yes, the Beth show was loved.

Monday night, Nicolai Dunger opened up for Rhett Miller & he amazed me. That man oozes emotion when he sings/word jazzes/keens through the PA & overwhelms you with the feeling in his voice & in his strings. It wasn't an opener I'd imagine for Rhett ... but a very welcome musician to see/hear indeed.

What can be said about Rhett?

It's hard to sum up seeing that man live. With or without the 97's (handsdown the most Punktry band on Earth) he's just fucking rad live. He shimmies & wiggles & smiles & winks & sweats & spits & screams & croons & seduces & sweats & writhes & jumps & spits & sweats & FUCK ... he fucking ROCKS.

Simply fucking rocks so much that no matter how tired you may have been or how much your feet want to hurt from a sixty hour work week, you feel as if you could stand there, smiling & clapping & whooping & stomping & singing along & watching him sweat & spit for endless hours if only he'd never stop playing.

"That" good.

We all know what "that" means.

If you don't then I apologize, for your life is incomplete & I suggest you grab some coffee & go in search of it immediately.

It pleased me that he added some Old 97's songs to the setlist that they didn't play when I saw them (at the same venue ... TINY little Independent in San Francisco ... so intimate & perfect & their bar serves Red Stripe in the bottle & NO I didn't huck any bottles at the stage ... I'm a civilized lush) back in November. There was "Question" & "King Of All The World" & "Murder or a Heart Attack" & "Fireflies" & of course a bunch from his new album & we had a hell of a time.

Yep, hell of a time.

Got my house phone turned on today. A bright & shiny new phone number is mine. Tomorrow night the moving begins & the best friend & I have got the entire weekend off to get situated (read: drunk) in my new place. There's so much room. I won't know what to do with myself.

Squeal.

Fun.

Next Wednesday is Chris Isaak ...

more Fun.

:blowing my speakers: Beth Orton ~ Feel to Believe
:feeding my head: Christopher Moore ~ Practical Demonkeeping
:rotting my brain: Survivor

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