I've been holding out

I know you're all on the edges of your seats--waiting for the Ani Concert Report.

Here it is.

The concert was absolutely brilliant. I have never ever been to a better concert. She played for a healthy hour and a half, she introduced every song and she was Fun. I smell Official Bootleg! I'll bet anyone who wants $5 that the Luzern concert will be a bootleg in the next 6 months or so. And if it is, you should all buy it.

Our seats were close. I've been close before, but it usually involves a crowd crushing me against a security fence while I gaze up Ani's nostrils--because the stage is 5 and a half feet off the ground. There was no security fence and the stage was only about 3 feet high.

And the crowd, they were so well behaved! Everyone waited politely (even me! best behavior) until the song was completely over before beggining with the hoo00hawwing and whistling (oh, how I wish that I could whistle too).

At the end, those of us in the front row walked calmly to the front of the stage to wait patiently for our set-lists. The roadie on the stage said "oh you guys are so quiet, this is weird" We lauged quietly and walked away without shoving.

Here's the set list (it's displayed proudly in my kitchen these days)

Swan Dive
78% Water
Next Bold Move
Here For Now
Rain Check
Lag Time
Marrow
Napoleon
You Had Time
Promiscuity (a BRAND new one--even though she only released an album 3 weeks ago!)
Present/Infant
Garden of Simple
Paradign
Alla This
Landing Gear
Shameless
and as an encore:
Little Plastic Castle
32 Flavors

The encore was really awesome: she got the whole crowd singing the chorus of 32 Flavors(the ohhh oh oh part) and than improvised over the top of it for a good solid minute--I smell Bootleg.

Here are some of the fun facts I learned from her song introductions:

Napoleon is her indie girl anthem--she put the F-word in every chorus in those days to ensure no radio play. Rain Check is her "I'd sleep with you if I were 5 years younger and didn't know better, but I'm only going to be sensible about it for the 3 minutes it takes me to sing this song-song". Present/Infant is "The song my baby taught me" Landing Gear is a "Labor song" She said that she liked playing in Europe because everyone is so well behaved compared to the americans who are like "Iloveyouanihavemybabyanitouchmeani!" (she seriously said that, I laughed nervously).

Also report-worthy: She got choked up everytime she talked about our Shameful Government, which I understand. I guess when you're an American abroad you want to convince everyone that you're not like Them. It feels like you have to be an abassador for the America that isn't necesarily on CNN--or something like that. I know that some of you (reading) won't agree with this, but I do and it's my blog.

After the show I talked to Hammel for a while, he invited us to his show in London. It's on the 4th--so it'll be a Celebration/Suicide show he said. I'd go for sure but our flight doesn't get in 'till 8:30 and he plays at 7:30. Sorry Hammel...thanks for the invite though.

It was an awesome show.

Dear Brits: She's playing in London on october 29th. GO Go GoGo!