Present Joys

Last night (19 oct 2013), my brother and I went to see Neko Case at the Newport Music Hall. Despite it being game day, we managed to get there with plenty of time to spare and snag front row, leaning-on-the-security-barrier spots. Observations:

• Neko is really scary (in a friendly, cool, way, but still scary). I took this photo at the very beginning of the show, just seconds before she called everyone out for having their phones out. Phew.
• She had a super-cool roadie (stage manager?) with her who’d tune all her instruments during the show and have them ready at the precise moment. He was wearing a three-piece suit and looked like an interesting guy.
• Speaking of guitars: those funky tenor guitars are so cool to see in real life. They are beautiful.
• Kelly Hogan is a national treasure and I want her to sing on all musical things I produce. The whole band was great, really; I was really glad to see Eric Bachmann too! And the dude playing bass was rock’n’rolling all the time.
• It was a fun crowd! I spotted lots of interesting people I didn’t expect to see. I love you, Columbus. Thanks for being here, Neko.