Good morning. Sorry I am late. I am hung over, Jane didn’t want breakfast for three hours, I had to edit my Olivia photos, and I had a ton of work this morning. Which one of those made this late? Who can say, who can say.
Olivia was great. I forgot how teen crowds scream the lyrics the entire time. You can definitely let that annoy you if you choose to. Needed earplugs just for the crowd. “Plugs” is a weird word, now that I think about it.
There was a badass, no-nonsense usher right in front of us and he was very entertaining. Wasn’t taking shit from anyone. He was blocking the entrance to the pit. People thought they could rush him, because he was an old man, but then they’d get closer and see the giant bouncer behind him and skedaddle off. He would occasionally rustle up a posse and go find a repeat scofflaw. Like it was the wild west. Loved him.
There were two parents behind us that sat where they did so they could have a view to their daughter, for whom they purchased a floor ticket. Musta cost a fortune. And she was clearly a very responsible girl she did not need that kind of chaperoning. And they were so, so miserable. The dad kept his ears plugged the entire time — did not bring earplugs. The mom kept her arms folded the entire time. I did not see them smile once. They looked about sixty but were probably younger than me. Very weird.
There was a dad and his daughter and he dropped her cell phone beneath the bleachers and boy was she mad at him. It did not stop her from screaming every lyric at the top of her lungs. The badass usher told them they could wait till the end and get it out from the bleachers. He was annoyed but I bet she was secretly psyched.
Chappel Roan was great. She did not get to use Olivia’s runways, so she did not get that close to us. But she played all the hits, and almost the entire crowd knew who she was, singing along to Red Wine Supernova and Casual. Casual was one of those arena singalongs where everyone had their phones out like lighters. Headliner stuff. She is going to go far.
And Olivia was… well, Olivia. She really has her thing locked in. She saves her voice on the high parts, lets the backing vocalists handle them except once in a while when it really matters. She is no dummy. Her costume changes included her tights so every time she had to take her shoes off too. Hard core. She flew around the arena on a moon for two songs. She interacted with the crowd heavily. She asked who was there with their parents, who was there with their boyfriend or girlfriend. She did not ask if there were any middle-aged married couples there without their kids, but I was ready to shout if she did.
She played guitar on one song that was weird. Wonder if it was real.
She sang “making the bed” from a bed and Emma thought that was very smart, having a song you could sing from bed so you could have a nice little break in the middle of the show.
I spent the show thinking too much about everything, as I tend to do at shows. Just thinking a thousand things. Shows and showers. The mind runs everywhere. Thought about all the other bands I’ve seen at the Garden. Thought about how if I see the Swans again at the Paradise in May, it will have been 32 years since I last saw the Swans at the Paradise, and is there another band and venue combination that has such a span in my concert history. Imagined the fans at the last show I was at at the Garden, Peter Gabriel, acting as insane as Olivia fans. Thought about the first time I went to the Garden, with my friend Paula, and saw the Call and Hothouse Flowers and Tribe and man I love the Call so much.
Olivia is obviously very hot and sexy and prancing around in skimpy outfits but mostly I realized I am on the other side of lechery now because I did not view it as sexual, I just viewed it as a great show, but I did spend a lot of time wondering about our society and why it feels the need to do this. It is all very odd. Hey let’s pick a few of our children and dress them up like ingenues in lingerie and prance them around in front of hundreds of thousands of people. You wanna get famous as a vocalist? Take your clothes off. Most of the crowd is teenage girls and gay boys and they are not thinking this way, of course, it’s just the parents and weirdos like Emma and I. But I do think I sort of got it in a way I hadn’t in the past. When you can enjoy the pageantry and not be thinking with your Don Johnson.
Though I did take a bazillion photos at the show. Was this because of her attractiveness or our amazing seats? Probably a bit of both. Our seats were really good. Photos make more sense when you can see something in them. And I really got my settings locked in on the iPhone for decent live shots. Turn the exposure down all the way. Turn off night mode. It still surprises me every time Apple hasn’t bothered to make that a preset or something.
Afterward I went to Highland Kitchen with Sean and it was great, Sean rules. Ran into a dude from Ho-Ag, though he was in the band after my friend Jonathan. Ran into one of the Bang Camaro dudes. Had too much to drink.
And now I gotta do it all again tonight.
Looking forward already to my night in tomorrow night. Bring it on.
Here are some photos!
Talk tomorrow.
olivia sounds so awesome. i was thinking about you guys when i listened to guts today. which bang camaro dude did you see?