THESE ENTRIES ARE SO LONG WHY DID NO ONE TELL ME

Andrew Bird @ the S. Portland High School Auditorium

1. The place
A massive high school auditorium, fabulous sound and strangely I got good seating, despite it being general admission and I arriving just as the house lights dimmed. It looked like a high school auditorium.
2. The people
Maine is a bloody weird state. Lots of grandmas and some hipsters, almost all high school lookin' (the hipsters, not the grandmas) some little kids with hands on ears and the most 'this-is-my-daughter's-play' atmosphere ever (attn: you do not need to vocalize laughter every time Andrew Bird or Annie Clark talk).
3. The performers
So Andrew Bird used almost the exact set list he used when I saw him this summer in Boston, even the same banter between songs (IE: him trying to verbalize something only explicable through music, IE: the impossible IE: he rambled) but this time it was actually funny! He had wit! It was just him too--no backing band--so when he looped himself into a light coma it was pretty magic.
St. Vincent I think was a little too much for an opener--a little too much PBR, not quite enough NPR, but some of the grandfolks seemed to get with it, what with the flute and the sax and the clarinet. Plus, at the end of Bird's set, Annie Clark came back out and they did a duet of a new song, along with some St. Vincent, along with St. Vincent coming back out for the most stirring, thumping rendition of Scythian Empires I've ever heard. Swoon. During the sort-of encore, they performed potentially the sexiest rendition of Bob Dylan's 'Oh Sister' I've ever heard. In short: they have super duper chemistry, and need to get on the baby making soon.

I'm willing to step aside and let Annie take 'im, so long as she treats him like she did last night.

So maybe the $10 in tolls between here and Maine, and the numerous near-death experiences in that rainy, foggy drive were a bit much, but the concert made up for it.

Until next time,
Stay NOT KETCHUPY,
WF
I Love AB