It’s Thursday morning, and I’m sitting here staring slightly bleary-eyed at the computer monitor here at work, trying to do two things: firstly, kick-start my brain into gear after being up fairly late last night; and secondly, see if there’s any way I can communicate how absolutely cool the Concrete Blonde concert I went to last night was. I’m probably not going to be able to do that good of a job, but…(shrug). Trust me. It was incredible.
Chad had bought tickets for the show back in December for myself, Candice, Rick, and whomever Rick wanted to bring along as Christmas presents for us. Too cool, especially as at the time I had no idea that Concrete Blonde was coming to Seattle — heck, I didn’t even know that they were back together again!
So last night, I got home from work, Candice came over after she was done on campus, and we gave Rick a call to figure out what the plans were. Not really having any definite plans aside from ‘make it to the show’, we ended up heading down to Rick’s place for some of his roommate Tim’s lasagna for dinner. Since Rick lives just about 15 blocks or so from the Showbox, it was a short drive down to find parking and wander in. We knew it was going to be a long night on the way in the Showbox. We were there right about 8pm when the doors opened, and as we were standing in line we saw a little sign taped to one of the doors listing the opening band as starting at 9:30pm, and Concrete Blonde playing at 10:45pm! Sleep? Who needs sleep? Not us!
None of the three of us (Rick never found someone for his extra ticket) had been to the Showbox before, so we just spent our first few minutes looking around — the place is huge! A very good sized main floor with two full bars flanking it, and a nice, low-lit atmosphere. As more and more people came in, my impression was set — it felt like Gigs times 50. With alcohol. Very cool :D. Anyway, not too long after we got in, Chad came flying across the room to tacklehug Rick and let us know where he was standing. We headed up and joined him, Don, and Peter, and ended up staking out just a perfect site where we had a great view of the stage without being on the main floor or in a pathway where we’d be getting jostled all the time. We all stood around talking for a bit waiting for things to get going, when all of a sudden Kate came strolling by! Immediately, we collectively mobbed her, and she joined us for the rest of the evening.
Eventually the house lights dimmed, and the opening act came on stage and was introduced by Johnette as her “friends and teachers,” a very nice touch. The band is a traditional Mexican group called Mojacar, a trio with one member playing acoustic guitar, one for percussion on hand drums from djoumbeks to bongos, and a lady dancing and contributing to the percussion with her hands and feet. Really neat stuff, and a very interesting way to start the evening. About halfway through Mojacar’s set they announced that they’d been working with a singer for a few songs that they were very pleased with — and Johnette walked onstage (after being introduced as “Juanetta”). She sat off to the side of the group and sang for a couple songs, which was very fun to watch — she was obviously enjoying being part of this, and even got the giggles a bit when she momentarily lost her place in one of the songs. Mojacar played one more song after Johnette left the stage again, then the lights came back up and the techies started getting things ready for Concrete Blonde.
About the one downside to the evening was that Candice is currently trying to fight off an ear infection. She’d been okay earlier in the day, but by the time Mojacar was finished she knew that there was no way she’d be able to make it through the rest of the show — she could hardly hear much of anything, and what was making it through was so sharp and painful that she was almost miserable. She assured me that she was fine with me staying, however, so we got her coat and I walked her out to her car so that she could head home and get some peace and quiet. She’s got a doctor’s appointment set for Friday, though, and while she was disappointed to have to miss the rest of the show, we both knew that she’d never make it once the band started playing.
Not long after I got back in, Johnette, Jim, and Harry took the stage, and launched into an absolutely incredible show. I didn’t bother to write down the playlist, but they played a good mix of old favorites and material from their new album — which I am going to have to pick up! Songs I’m sure I heard over the course of the night, in no particular order…Bloodletting, Days and Days, Joey (interspersing verses of Whiskey in the Jar in between verses of Joey — wow!), Still in Hollywood, God is a Bullet, Scene of a Perfect Crime, Angel, When I Was a Fool, Fried, Violent, and Everybody Knows. I know there were some other songs too, but these are the ones I know I heard. Angel, When I Was a Fool, Fried, and Violent are all off their new album, Group Therapy, and were all incredible songs — that album is a definite must-buy as soon as I can.
The entire show was great — Johnette’s a very real person onstage. I’ve been to shows where the band is too busy performing to really make a connection with the audience (for instance, Godhead at the Pigface show I went to in December). Johnette is anything but that — very real, actually looks at and interacts with the people in the audience — the kind of artist that you can, and do, actually believe when they talk about how much they’re enjoying being there, how much fun they’re having performing, and how much they love the audience that night. She’s also not afraid of poking a little fun at people when necessary — at one point during Bloodletting a couple guys started crowdsurfing. Johnette just looked down at them from the stage and started talking to them, interspersing her comments between the verses from the song, ending up adding an amusing little counterpoint to Bloodletting. “There’s a rocking chair by the window down the hall (Oh, none of that shit now, get down…) I hear something there in the shadow down the hall (Man, I can’t handle that kind of stuff anymore…) Oh you were a vampire and now I am nothing at all (My joints are just too worn out…) Oh you were a vampire and now I am nothing at all…” The guys got the point, and settled down after that. Was quite funny, though.
Eventually, after a long and thoroughly enjoyable set plus a 3-song encore, they sent us out, finishing off the night with Still in Hollywood. The entire group of us (myself, Rick, Chad, Don, Peter, and Kate) gathered outside the Showbox briefly, all completely jazzed on a post-show rush, and after chatting for a few more minutes, split up to head home. Since Candice had driven her truck back home earlier and I was on such a rush, I just hiked up the hill (straight up Pike Street, it was a couple blocks shorter than my walk home after work each day) and made it home by about 12:40am. I was up late — and I can certainly feel it this morning — but it was definitely well worth it. What an incredible show.