Music Makes Me Happy

This past Friday I saw The New Pornographers and Belle and Sebastian. Prior to the show I was most excited to see The New Pornographers, mostly because I’ve been listening to Twin Cinema over and over since October. I’ve always liked Belle and Sebastian, I just never got around to seeing them, for one reason or another I have either passed or had not been able to see them. This bill seemed perfect and I am so glad I went. The New Pornographers were great; they have wonderful harmonies and amazingly catchy songs that are nothing short of brilliant. Then I got nervous, Belle and Sebastian took more than half an hour to get their stuff set up, despite half of it already being there behind NP. I was getting annoyed. When they came on the blew me away. From the very first second to the last (about two hours) they were completely and utterly captivating. It was truly one of the best shows I’ve seen in ten years. Then there was Stuart. Stuart was charming, witty and sassy, all of this I should have expected from his lyrics. I was enthralled for every minute, perhaps even swooning. Now, I feel I must be totally honest and also tell you he is three things that I am hypnotized by, pasty, skinny (some would say puny), and Scottish. I could be wooed to my death by a Scottish man. It is the mermaid call from the rocky shores, I will be totally blinded by all else and focus on nothing but that beautiful Highland English, Scottish English or Gaelic (despite having no idea what they are saying if it is Gaelic) and crash starry eyed into a violent rocky death. Dramatic? Yes. But damn, it is a bit like that.

Anyway, my point is that Stuart is Scottish, chatty, witty, sassy dancer, talented singer/musician AND he talked quite knowledgably on dinosaurs for a bit. It was like heaven, I was in love for 120 minutes, and I’m still a bit smitten.

Seeing shows is truly one of them best things in the world to me, I love them, and if it is a good show it can change my mood for hours, no matter what is going on. If it is an amazing show, as this one was it can keep me going for days.

Quick on the heals of this show (the next day) was the chance to get tickets to Erasure at Park West. Thankfully a friend (who asked to never be mentioned here and even his initial would give him away so I wont) was able to get those tickets as I was out and about. As many of you know Erasure tickets go crazy fast here and if you are not ready to go right at 10.00 AM you will probably miss out. I was afraid, Park West is small especially compared to two or three nights at the Chicago Theatre (their regular stops here tend to be two or three nights there) and those tend to sell out in a few hours, if not minutes. Again, I am very happy he got those for us. I love Erasure, I've seen them at least six times and I am never disappointed, never.

Then my friend who got the Erasure tickets called and said ‘Sigur Ros is playing the Opera House, wanna go?’ I said, “Sure, how can I pass that up”.

Needless to say I am pretty happy and riding a little wave of music giddiness.