Indoor Fireworks

I'm somewhat amazed that at the age of 37 I can still be so blown away by a concert experience that I become a giddy little girl in those moments. When I was a teenager going to a show was an escape from my horrible home life for a few hours, so a really amazing show by one of my favorite artists was always a special and memorable experience. It also helped me forget, for a few hours, that I was growing up in a horrible place under the rule of a wretched, tyrannical mother. As Jeff Tweedy sings on Sunken Treasure, "Music is my savior..."

I wouldn't have made it through my teen years without music and concert-going. But now I don't have anything to escape from. My mother lives far away from me, I have a great wife who I love and we have a kid on the way (that is the first time I've written that here, the big news in my life. If you know me I probably already told you and if you don't know me you are probably not even reading this). I even met my wife because of a concert, REM at Rosemont Horizon in 1989, during those dark days.

It seems that by the time one reaches their late thirties these romantic notions of "special" experiences at shows that perhaps "take me to another place" or some other idea about "out of body" hippy nonsense would have been beat out of them by life. But with me that's not the case. I can still be so caught up in a beautiful moment at a show by one of my favorite performers that my eyes will well up or I will feel like (and I know how dorky this sounds) I've entered another plane of existence and nothing else in the world exists in that moment.

I went to the Grand Ballroom on 34th Street Wednesday night to see the Nick Lowe show. Well, I went to see Robyn Hitchcock open for Nick Lowe. Robyn is not someone I miss when he comes to the town where I'm living, having seen him 40-something times. I probably wouldn't have been going to see Nick Lowe without Robyn opening. Lowe is one of those guys who I like a lot but have never gotten around to owning any of his records. I think everyone has somebody like that, legendary musicians whose records you feel like you should own but don't. I'm always kicking myself for never having bought any Tom Waits either.

I was pretty excited about seeing Robyn again and getting the chance to check out a Nick Lowe show. I haven't seen Robyn as an opening act since that REM show back in '89 so I wasn't really sure what to expect. Was he going to just play his songs that a non-Hitchcock crowd might know, his minor hits, like Balloon Man and Madonna Of The Wasps? Or would he just go ahead and play the same kind of set, though shorter, that he would for one of his own gigs?

I didn't get my answer from the first song as he opened with Heaven, which is fairly accessible and known. But then he followed with Daisy Bomb, which is not even one he plays very often, so I thought, "OK this is going to be a real Robyn Hitchcock experience."

He also started off with one of his rambling stories in all its wonderful weirdness, which I would think is pretty daring for an opener to do. By the middle of the set he really dared the audience to come along with him on this journey when he threw in some of his odder songs. Throwing The Cheese Alarm at them was quite a sight to see. A song that mentions about a dozen types of cheese would be a real test of how much the Nick Lowe crowd was into it. And if that didn't drive them away then maybe Wax Doll, with its line "If I was man enough I'd come on your stump," would. But the crowd stayed with him.

I knew I liked Nick Lowe fans a lot by this point in the show. During the whole set, including Robyn's ramblings, the crowd was so quiet and listening intently. This was a completely different experience than the one Billy Bragg had with the idiot Pogues fans last month.

By the end he had played a wonderfully varied set of eight or nine songs that spanned his career from about 1980 (I Got The Hots) to a brand new song he said he had just written. Right before the new song he played probably two of his finest compositions, One Long Pair Of Eyes and Glass Hotel, that gave me goose bumps and a lump in my throat.

I called my buddy Mikey in Seattle to tell him about the show, I wasn't sure if my wife would be in bed so I didn't want to wake her up with my giddy exuberance about the show. The show was short but a great performance as usual for Mr. Hitchcock.

I talked with Mike for a while and then went up to see Nick Lowe's set. Like I said, I don't own any Nick Lowe but I figured it would be a good show even without knowing the songs. I was also guessing I could look forward to hearing him play several songs that I would recognize since the man is responsible for a few legendary songs, like (What's So Funny "Bout) Peace, Love & Understanding, I Knew The Bride (When She Used To Rock and Roll) and Cruel To Be Kind.

A good show was an understatement. It was a great show! The songs I didn't know were fabulous and the ones I recognized sounded better than any version I had heard before. He closed the main set with an acoustic version of Peace, Love & Understanding that was beyond amazing. With all due respect to Elvis Costello, his version doesn't even come close to speaking to me the same way that Nick's did on Wednesday. And I love Costello's version.

At that point he walked off stage for the encore break (still the part of a show I hate the most, the fake encore) and the crowd was going nuts. After hearing such and incredible version of that song to end the set I thought about leaving. "It couldn't get any better than that ," I thought. I really considered letting that be the last moment for me. I am glad I didn't.

He came back out and played The Beast In Me, a song I kind of know, and then invited Robyn out on stage to do a song with him. This was why I didn't leave, knowing this was a possibility. Nick and Robyn covered a fun, obscure early 60's song and then Nick said something like, "We'd like to bring out a friend..." and out walked fucking Elvis Costello! Needless to say the crowd went absolutely nuts.

Elvis and Nick did a song called Indoor Fireworks that Elvis wrote, which was quite beautiful. Then Robyn came back out the three of them finished the show with Robyn singing lead on If I Fell by the Beatles and Mystery Train, a song made famous by the other Elvis.

Really glad I decided to stay.

After the show I was really pumped up and had to call as many of my music-loving friends as I could. Since it was so late I had to stick to the West Coast so I was on the phone to Seattle, San Francisco and L.A. My friend Martha in San Francisco got on the computer right away and bought tickets to Saturday's show at the Fillmore.

I just love that a concert can still take me to another place like that. It's even better than it used to be, I can get the same feeling I got as a teen without all the baggage that goes along with, well, being a teen.

God I love music.

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Roquefort and grueyere and slippery Brie
All of these cheeses they happen to me
Oh please

Rough pecorino and moody Rams Hall
Stop me before I just swallow it all
Oh please

Somebody ring the cheese alarm
Oh please
Somebody ring the cheese alarm

Goats' cheese cylinder, tangy and white
Roll over me in the flickering night
Oh please

Chaume and Jarlsberg, applewood smoked
"The pleasure is mine," he obligingly joked
Oh please

Somebody ring the cheese alarm
Oh please
Somebody ring the cheese alarm

Hey now, Fletcher, don't keep me up late
I can't even fit into size thirty-eights
Oh please

Juddering Stilton with your blue-blooded veins
You can't build a palace without any drains
Oh please
Oh please
Oh please

Half the world starving and half the world bloats
Half the world sits on the other and gloats
Oh please

Truckle of cheddar in a muslin rind
Would you give it all up for some real peace of mind?
Oh no.

---The Cheese Alarm by Robyn Hitchcock