Present Joys

The tickets for all of Sufjan’s 2012 Christmas tour sold out really fast and I wasn’t quick enough to snag one. Thankfully, my friend Valerie bought two and told me I could have one, provided I gave her a ride. So I did! We got there pretty early—a half hour before doors—and they wouldn’t even let us pick up our tickets yet. We waited around for a while then got in line (in the front!). While we were waiting to pick up our tickets, I heard some people nearby who said they were trying to get backstage to talk to their daughter, Rosie Thomas! I introduced myself to Rosie’s dad, who had driven to Cleveland from Michigan for the show, and thanked him for having a cool daughter.

Once they finally opened the doors, we went inside and waited some more. Thankfully, there was a bunch of stuff to look at. Sufjan’s Wheel of Christmas was too big to fit onstage so it was along one of the walls. (Almost too big to fit there!) We enjoyed looking at all

Rosie Thomas’ opening act, performed as the character Sheila Saputo, was really cute. I am not too crazy about

Then the show started. Most of the time it was hard to believe it was actually happening.

Everything sounded really nice. The band was tight and the house volume was at a very pleasant (not loud) level. I really liked hearing the older Christmas originals played in the new format. Sufjan used

The “wheel of Christmas” thing was really fun, but my favorite part was the random music the band played while people spun it. It seemed very spontaneous. At one point the trumpet player was playing the Flintstones’ theme song and Rosie played along on kazoo.

I was standing right in front of Rosie, and we had several cute interactions. During the first sing-along portion, I noticed I seemed to be singing a little louder and a little surer than the people around me. Rosie noticed too, I guess, because during “joy to the World” during the second singalong time, she leaned down to me and handed me her mic and winked. So I sang the first verse of Joy to the World into Rosie’s mic! I definitely could not hear myself over the house speakers, but I was a really fun experience. After the song, Rosie picked up an inflatable unicorn and handed it to me, then she came back with a setlist. She said, “here’s a setlist for you! Sorry it has a little water on it!” Referring to the fact that Sufjan had splashed his water bottle all over the stage and first row earlier in the night. It was so exciting! Later in the night, we were singing Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing, Rosie came back over to me and said “you have a wonderful singing voice!”