Well, I never thought I'd actually do it, but I ended up going to the Alanis concert. I really expected to wuss out at some point, but luckily, it really wasn't much louder than parts of a Steve Jobs keynote. Just in case things got too loud, we actually rigged up a flashlight that I could activate with a switch, so that I could signal my brother in case he couldn't hear me. It was like the Bat Signal, but with a gimpy twist. I'd never been to any sort of concert, so I had no idea what to expect. The venue wasn't huge and Alanis isn't death metal, so I figured things wouldn't get too crazy. The opener was really dull, Jason somebody, or as I called him, Dave Matthews Jr. The girls really dug Dave Jr. though. We brought a friend with us who kept standing up to shriek gleefully during his guitar solos. That was one of those things that's funny and annoying all at once. Anyway, the guy went on for what seemed like 3 hours, but was probably 45 minutes, which we took as the perfect opportunity to go buy concert gear. I got a stylish purple Alanis hat and a copy of Jagged Little Pill Unplugged. Then came the 30+ minute intermission, which seemed like an hour. It was crazy, we got there at around 7 PM, but Alanis didn't actually go on until almost 10.
So, Alanis is really awesome live. Some people sound totally different without the help of a studio, but I think Alanis actually sounds better live. Alanis' voice is flat out spectacular all by itself. I've seen her live once before, when she made her U.S. TV debut on the Late Show (I was there to photograph Dave), so I knew the concert wouldn't suck... and it sooooo didn't! I was still kind of uneasy for the first half of the show, but once she played Wake Up, I really started getting into things. It's one of my favorite songs off of Jagged Little Pill. Obviously, she played You Oughta Know, which was great. One of my favorite parts was when, in unison, the entire crowd shouted, "did you forget about me, Mr. Duplicity? I hate to bug you in the middle of dinner, but it was a slap in the face how quickly I was replaced and are you thinkin' of me when you fuck her?" That was pretty freaking cool. At any rate, I'm now no longer a concert n00b, which is a good thing. Anybody bored enough can check out some not so great photos here. No, I didn't take them. If I had, I'd have used my Nikon D100 and they'd have been good. Next time I won't be so nervous and I'll do my own photography.
Posted by Mike at June 27, 2005 03:34 PM