All In The Details

Do you notice anything in that shot? Because when Shannon and I went to the Highline Ballroom to see another of our dance-tested, Pengabear-approved favorites, Jamie Lidell, we stood right up front by the stage and all I could see as I stood there was that little star - and I loved it because I thought of it the same way I think of Jamie Lidell - a little star that you don't even notice at first, but once you do it's all you want to pay attention to.

It was Concert #2 of our tour of musical acts Shannon and I wanted to see together and boogie to. We started the night off at Belmont Lounge and I had my first Old-Fashioned, inspired by my many hours of falling in love with Don Draper on "Mad Men." It was delicious. Then we headed over to the Ballroom and waited anxiously for our man to step on stage and rock our worlds. Shannon made use of our waiting time by taking photos of me in her favorite jenna light.


... and of details upon the stage that make a show a show.




I think it's a mix of production crew and fan inside of her.

The opening band, whose name I didn't catch and a record of whom I cannot find anywhere, came out and were... different. To me they seemed like a grown-up boy and his mom singing up on stage. They were unpolished, experimental and not particularly good. It was like listening to bad karaoke. I was in full-on snark mode and couldn't stop making jokes to Shannon about how he still lived in her basement and she agreed to support his dream of becoming a rock star by being his back-up singer/keyboardist.




They did all these hilarious dance moves that seemed like they'd tried to choreograph it. Okay, here is what it was like. It was like if Michael and Holly from "The Office" tried to be rock stars. But if Holly was his mom.


But then they stripped down to shiny spaceman suits.


... and screamed at us.


And really, after that Shannon and I just had a shiny crotch in our faces.


After that... event, we waited patiently for our man to come out and entertained ourselves by discussing my future music blog and falling in love with the beauty of a pre-concert setup.

The lights, and instruments...


The crowd... (Paul Dano's in there somewhere)


The sloppily over-under'ed cables...


a new set list, bound by duct tape and immediately betrothed to us, as we were front and center to the stage.


and, you know. us.

and our pretty necks.


The show wasn't so different from the one I saw with Momo, but that made it no less fun. Different venue, different season, different company make it all a new experience. The voicebox dude in his sparkly bathrobe came out and started the party.


I'm telling you, Shannon's an amazing photographer. Just so you know, I will be appointing her photog of my music blog.


There's our gorgeous man, flanked by amazing musicians including this funky one piece suit-wearing dude that I think I was trying to flirt with while he set up the instruments before the show.


I loved this older gent and the lovely violet glow upon him so that I snatched Shannon's camera and snapped some pics.




For a bit Lidell did his solo bit, recording beatboxing and harmonies and layering them elegantly so as to create entire songs on his own.


The suit, the glasses, the talent - it destroys me! After the band came back, he did a slow song sitting DEAD CENTER in front of us.


Can't get enough of those foppish pointy shoes, eh Shannon?


Then the fun started again as they began to wrap up the show, as all the boys started boogie-ing down. Down, down down.








Shannon had to scurry before the encore to catch her train back to Long Island. I stayed and completed the boogie. However, as she slipped out during the darkness between set and encore, a kid in Paul Dano's entourage slid into her space, reached past me and snagged the set list. The nerve!! I was more than a little pissed.

But Lidell played an amazing encore, so filled with energy that on the last beat of the last song of the night, he slammed his tambourine down to the ground and it smashed into a dozen pieces. I promptly reached up and grabbed one.


Then the band finished, exited the stage and I hopped up, fearless, and snapped up a set list from the bassist's area for Shannon before security could grab me.


That photo's courtesy of Brooklyn Vegan, who took my photo after the petty theft and who has some wonderful photos of the show as well. The rest of the photos on this post and the Of Montreal post are courtesy of Shannon, upon whom I can always count to capture the moment.

love,
*jenna*