david byrne @ the carolina theatre

yes, last night was the big show. david byrne at the carolina theatre in durham. it was so satisfying to see the "sold out" sign on the marquee... it's not often that anything at that theatre is really and truly sold out. (1,016 seats! yay for david!!)

before the show, though, i invited our crew (there were 16 of us in our group) over for a cookout. not everyone could come, unfortunately, but a few other people who weren't going to the show stopped by for bacon-wrapped hot dogs on the grill. charlotte brought corn dog, the friendliest puppy on earth. we had booze & basketball, too. fun.

as 8:00 approached, we got our carpooling arranged and i threw on my red, heeled boots, and off to the theatre we went. we arrived a song or two into sam phillips' set. the lights in the concert hall had already been dimmed and the ushers were using flashlights to get us to our seats.

those seats, by the way, were in the first row. the theatre, in this instance, though, has two row "A"s... a "row A" of permanent seats, and a "row A" in the pit orchestra (these were simply temporary seats set up for this occasion). the usher pointed me towards the regular row A, and i pointed at my ticket and said, "this is actually in the pit". she said, "ohhh!" and very dramatically waved us into the area. hee hee. that felt great.

i really enjoyed sam phillips' set. she didn't have a lot of stage presence, but i liked her music. i had heard a few songs prior to the show (thanks, limewire!) and hadn't really been blown away. but in person i really enjoyed her stuff. sorta sad and subtly twangy songs. her voice is fine and clear. i think i'll be paying more attention to her music in the future.

during the intermission i mingled with a few folks and marveled at how many people were cramming into the hall. ray bought me a giant sprite from the concession stand, which came in handy throughout the evening. i was getting excited.

the minute the lights went back down i got giddy. i'd seen this tour earlier in the year and knew how good it was going to be. i took off my boots and got ready for some serious sock-dancing.

here's the set list:

Glass, Concrete & Stone (DB: Grown Backwards)
I Zimbra (TH: Fear of Music)
Aucensia (Cesaria Evora)
Finite=Alright (DB: Feelings)
The Man Who Loved Beer (DB: Grown Backwards)
The Great Intoxication (DB: Look Into the Eyeball)
Naive Melody (This Must Be The Place) (TH: Speaking in Tongues)
Road to Nowhere (TH: Little Creatures)
Nothing But Flowers (TH: Naked)
Once In A Lifetime (TH: Remain in Light)
One Rainy Wish (Jimi Hendrix)
Psycho Killer (TH: '77)
Don't Fence Me In (DB: Red Hot & Blue comp.)
Like Humans Do (DB: Look Into the Eyeball)
Dialog Box (DB: Grown Backwards)
What a Day That Was (DB: Catherine Wheel)
Blind (TH: Naked)
--
Desconocido Soy (DB: Look Into the Eyeball)
Life During Wartime (TH: Fear of Music)
--
Heaven (TH: Fear of Music)
Lazy (DB: Grown Backwards)

there's a great story over on david's tour journal (the september 6th entry in boulder, colorado) about how the concert promoter there refused to believe that people would be dancing at the show, and how a member of david's staff bet the promoter $200 that *everyone* would be dancing by song #7. of course at song #7 david looked over and the promoter was counting out $200 to the staff member. ha!

well, by song #2 last night we were all up & dancing. i acted like a crazy woman, there in the very front row, mere inches from david byrne, jumping up and down and shaking my big butt. i had such a good time. i think my bra lost all elasticity mid-way through the show, though... it just couldn't hold up to my incessant pogoing.

afterwards, though, my friend tony (who is even a bigger david byrne fan than i am) said that in the rear of the hall the security dorks were forcibly keeping people from dancing in the aisles... that even when their feet slid even a little into the aisle they got yelled at. what a crock of poo. that's terrible! let people dance, dammit! we all paid to have a good time!

as far as the music goes, the biggest surprise of the night actually came when david announced he was going to do a cole porter song. many, many years ago he recorded "don't fence me in" for the aids awareness album, "red, hot & blue" and i have NEVER heard him perform it live. i don't even think he's done it on this tour yet. it stunned me. it was a first. it's such a great, uptempo version of the song... charlotte turned to me and said, "ok, david byrne is officially cool now!" (like, duh, charlotte! :-)

about that time my cell phone started vibrating in my pocket. i pulled it out and saw it was a call from lulu, my sister-in-law and david byrne fan in her own right, and though i couldn't hear a word she said i shouted into the phone for her to just stay on the line as long as she wanted and listen to the concert. i think she heard at least 2 songs... i hope the sound was good.

as i was dancing i'd occasionally turn around and get a view of the entire hall bouncing up & down. even the people in the upper balcony were dancing! it's so steep up there! i'm terrified to even walk up those aisles... those people must've been moved --pretty fucking moved!-- by the music to risk their necks like that.

tony (uber-fan) had told me that at a recent show in austin the crowd was so incredible that david actually did a third, unscheduled encore: "un di felice etera", one of the opera arias from "grown backwards". i held out hope that we were a fabulous crowd, too (i know the front row was a fabulous crowd!) and my heart skipped a beat when, during their final bows, i saw david mouthing some words to himself. i thought maybe he was refreshing his italian or something. but no such luck. that final bow was, in fact, the final bow. boo hoo.

afterwards a bunch of us mingled in the lobby. tony had told us that there might be a chance that the band would make an appearance out there. (did i mention that tony and his wife, mary anne, have all-access badges for this tour? they go to any show they want --free-- and have access to the backstage area and after-show parties. yeah, i'm envious.) but alas, the band didn't come out. then tony suggested we wait by the tour buses... they had to eventually come out there.

well, we waited and waited and waited. probably close to 45 minutes. and it was COLD outside. band members came by and we thanked them all for the show. the friendliest was percussionist mauro refosco (scroll down to the 4th & 5th photo), who came out, saw us, pointed, and said, "oh! front row!!" we all laughed... i guess we were all making such fools of ourselves that we were easily recognizable after the show.

tony & mary anne kept popping in backstage, then coming back out to tell us what was going on. they said that david didn't really feel like meeting anyone tonight. tony said to david, "but the entire front row is out there! and they're such BABES!!" i'm still laughing at that.

so yes, david finally caved in and very briefly made an appearance outside by the buses, but he only stayed long enough for molly to get her set list autographed and then he ran away. (molly, i might add, is 8 months pregnant and danced her little heart out all night long. what a trooper! she also took some clandestine photos which are posted below.)

by that point it was close to 1am and we were all totally wiped out. i came home and noodled around the house for an hour, trying to get the buzz to wear off. when i finally slept, though, it was a beautiful, deep, happy sleep.

and this morning i woke up feeling so energized! for the last couple of weeks i've been aimless, listless and generally down in the dumps. this concert lifted me up and gave me a new energy. invigoration.

i wish i could see some more dates on this tour! my budget won't really allow a trip to south america, though, and the florida dates are during the fundraiser at work. phoo. maybe there will be other dates announced soon.

   

[other concert mentions: georg, sarah (w/photos!), lisa]

Posted by xta at September 20, 2004 02:39 PM | TrackBack