Tuesday night, Sky and I saw the Magnetic Fields play at Town Hall. It was a lovely show – they played a lot more old songs than I’d expected. I was struck (again) by how melancholy and ennui evoking Merritt’s lyrics are: most of the walk home I felt as if my reality had been pierced full of thousands of tiny holes. It was hard to tell if the resulting out-of-sorts feelings were even related to my present life or if they were echoes of emotions I’d felt in the past when listening to the songs. It felt like 1998 all over again.

Here are some bits and pieces that I remember…

They played “I Have the Moon” which contains lyrics that held the highest seat of lyrical honor in the late nineties: it was my e-mail signature line for many months:

O\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\O
\\You have to fly around the world all day //
\\to keep the sunlight on your face ////////
O\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\O

I had no idea that this song was about a Vampire in love, but apparently it is; Merritt’s intro to the song was “This is a song about vampires and apartness.”

It was great to see that my imaginary boyfriend, Sam Davol, had aged well. Click his name to read a sweet little NY Times article on how he revamped a Boston loft in which to raise his little twee family.

They ended the show (if you don’t count the encore) with one of my absolute favorites – 100,000 Fireflies. I’ve spent weeks at time with this song stuck in my head, and it was amazing to hear it played live. It’s a really unique song in that I can’t think of many others that have the same quality: it’s intense but breezy and light, and if I had to describe it with one word I’d call it “twinkly.”

Why do we still live here
in this repulsive town?
All our friends are in New York.

Why do we keep shrieking
when me mean soft things?
We should be whispering all the time.
- 100,000 Fireflies, Magnetic Fields

You can listen to the song by playing this YouTube video (nevermind the weird, blurry fankid graphics that go along).

For those playing along at home, there’s a set list posted on the Line Out review of the show.

I sat down a few times to write about what I saw but honestly I can’t do it justice. I laughed, I cried, I wished I was living in New York City in 1969.

There’s a short summary of the show posted on Line Out. The writeup gives an accurate blow-by-blow but doesn’t do much to explain what it felt like.

At the end of the evening Patti performed an staggeringly awesome and heartfelt a capella version of “Because the Night” wherein she asked us to help her sing the refrain. There’s a video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OHiHq6VoHrQ (she begins singing a few minutes in)

I love that she narrated the guitar solo, Literal Video style!

Yesterday was an exercise in excess. We slept in until 11 and had a breakfast of from-scratch buttermilk pancakes. I laid about reading for most of the afternoon, then we had some grilled cheese sandwiches and headed over to D & T’s for a housewarming shindig. I made lovely drinks with orange bitters and played with babies. The rooms were hot, filled with people and laughing, and I felt like I was sitting in the belly of some wiggly party snake. I was preoccupied with watching other people and enjoying the snippets of conversation that floated over others’ heads. I probably wasn’t much of a conversationalist, but that’s okay.

After the party we went to the Moore to see Antony and the Johnsons. I was looking forward to the show because Antony’s got the loveliest voice, but I wasn’t prepared for the night (in a good way). We took our seats about halfway into the first song: it was one I didn’t know, but as I looked down to the stage as I sat, I almost missed the seat with my butt I was so focused on that person at the piano. I’m going to say “person” and “Antony” a lot because the most amazing thing about this artist is his between-ness: he’s not a man or a woman, and if you close your eyes and listen to the voice you can easily imagine it coming out of all sorts of bodies. I see men, I see women, I see young, I see old. The voice, if I had to pin it down and make comparisons, is kind of like if Edith Piaf, Nina Simone and Alison Moyet had a three-way that resulted in a magical baby and then Janis Joplin possessed that baby. But not even that – none of that is fair because Antony’s completely something else. I recommend you go find an Antony and the Johnsons track and play it while you read the rest of this post, if you can.



I really love singers/musical performers who look and act as if they are in the middle of some sort of exorcism. They move and they sway and then open their mouths to let the sound out because if they don’t it’s going to eat them alive. Not just Antony, but the rest of his bad (cello, violins, guitar, sax, drums, clarinet) were so under the force of the music that they never stopped moving or playing, even when they sat still.

Antony’s singing pulls this emotion out of my belly – I felt, for most of the show, like I needed to cry or gasp or start/stop breathing. What’s funny is I can’t even say “Gosh, I really like the style of this music” because you can’t really like or not like it. The point is you’re enraptured by Antony and his stage presence and his storytelling and his voice and the music swells and slows like something as solid as the seat you’re in: it’s just there and it’s all encompassing.

The audience was an odd assortment of people, which I liked. What I didn’t like was the dudes (I think it was all dudes) who shouted between songs. Antony did this great cover of Beyonce’s “Crazy in Love” and at the end some dude yelled out “Fuck Beyonce!” — dude, why? Why dude? Antony stopped and asked the same, “How can you say that?” and then he tinkled the keys a bit and said “I think Beyonce is sacred.” At one point when everyone was just clapping and being spazzy and so goddamn happy to be in there (I don’t think they’ve been to Seattle before, and this tour included just 5 US cities), Antony laughed and said, “You’re like a litter of kittens! You’re just new, happy baby kittens! Usually I’m playing for a room full of chickens or some other birds.”

At the end of the show both of us had cried out eyes and felt all used up, but in a really beautiful way. We made our way down to the Market and had some pastis and talked about the next few years. We’re always planning. On the scooter ride home, Sky shouted “I want macaroni and cheese!!!!” so we made some when we got home: Gourmet’s mac and cheese (we substituted buttermilk and it was extra tart and tasty). We settled into bed around 1am full of music and booze and cheese. A good day.

I’m dancing around in my pajamas, mostly because of this greater than awesome news:
my best friend RULES

Hey, Public:
Rasputina, Friday evening – anyone else going? Wanda? Bueller? Bueller?
(I have a ticket, just no concert-mates)