EvelynEvelyn concert - with Amanda Palmer, Jason Webley, and Sxip Shirey

On my way to the venue (Corona Theatre in St. Henri), I saw Sxip Shirey walking in the opposite direction. I was wearing my Dresden Dolls hoodie and I grinned at him and he grinned at me. It was a nice moment of mutual recognition.

I waited in the venue for the guest list to be given to the box office - I won two free tickets in the Twitter competition - and listened to a group of people in line ahead of me talking about weed and informed consent. It was fun. I got my tickets, Izzy arrived, and we seated ourselves at a table in the centre, two rows back. The theatre was arranged like a dinner-show sort of thing with little tables with tealight lamps on them. Izzy and I blathered, paid too much for soft drinks, I noticed and said hi to a friend and acquaintance of mine. After an hour of waiting, the show started.

Sxip Shirey opened. Before this show I had never heard his music and knew nothing of it beyond "he plays that wacky instrument Neil and Amanda cobbled together out of a candlestick and multiple bike bells". He was fantastic. He told a story about his neighborhood in Brooklyn and then played three fantastic songs. His instruments include three penny whistles ducktaped together, five music boxes that play the same thing at various pitches, a red marble in a glass bowl, a bunch of handbells, several harmonicas, and a mixer that put effects on all these sounds and played beats behind. He was absolutely impression-leaving.

Then EvelynEvelyn came on, MCed by Sxip. I don't have much to say about their set. I enjoyed it a hell of a lot. The acting and music and comedic timing were all fantastic. The CD and now the show made it clear to me that the twins' odd behavior isn't a conjoined twin thing - it's a "raised by a string of crazy people who didn't treat them right" thing. They're naive and weird because they weren't socialized like most people we would consider "normal" - and being treated badly because they're conjoined twins just added to that. Anyway, no more of that. I really enjoyed their set. The highlight, I think, was the Chalice of Knowledge.

There was an intermission, and then Jason Webley played a great song with stomping and accordion and audience participation. He divided the audience into trombones and violins and namedropped Toronto (our nemesis city according to Montreal trope) to get us louder and louder. I like his accordion songs a lot, but I could barely understand what he was singing.

And then Amanda Palmer wandered out at the end of his set and they sang a fantastic smashy song together, and then she played her set. She opened with Astronaut, then Missed Me, then a cover of a Radiohead song, then The Truth, then Sxip and Jason came out and sang Electric Blanket her. Her last song was Runs In The Family, but during the first verse someone threw a Lady Gaga disco bra onstage and she stopped, put it on, banged out RAH RAH RAH AH AH and then started back into Runs In The Family. Sxip and Jason and Amanda and their hot tour manager all came out for the encore, which was a fantastic drinking song. They got us all "wasted" in a cheap manner by making us spin in a circle twelve times staring up at our own outstretched hands above our heads. It was hilarious.

After the show I bought Sxip Shirey's album and talked to him about Socalled, because his music reminded me of Socalled's. I joined his mailing list and Sxip told me about Luminescent Orchestrii, a gypsy klezmer punk mishmash band he is/was in. (I looked them up when I got home. They're good.) He signed my ticket and my copy of his CD. Then I spoke to Jason Webley and told him about Dan Kahn & THe Painted Bird, because his set reminded me of them. We started talking about his music, and he suggested I stick around after to talk more. Cooool. He signed my ticket, and then Amanda did. I didn't have much to say to her, oddly enough. Usually when I meet band people after shows I always feel a little adrenaline rush, and a compulsion to matter to them or interact on some personal level, but I knew I didn't have anything special to say to her, so I just thanked her for an awesome show and for doing everything she does, and went to hang out in the lobby and wait for Jason.

Izzy and I struck up a conversation about Ben Folds with another kid while we waited, and then Jason came out and we chatted for a bit. He said he really likes Montreal, and he suggested we all chill after, go out for coffee or something. He said they were leaving in the morning so he might as well not sleep the night. We talked about music some more - I told him I'm teaching myself accordion, I'm into klezmer music, I'm in between bands at the moment, music stuff. After a bit he went to talk to the tour manager for a minute and then we chatted some more. He asked me for my number in so we could meet up after he took care of some work, and later he decided he'd just go sleep since he was feeling too tired to go out. He asked me to email him so we could talk more, though, and I left him with the name of the band I thought he'd like.

I am so glad I'm not an awkward teenie anymore and can have an actual intelligent and interesting conversation with, uh, touring rockstars.

All in all, an absolutely wonderful concert experience. Concert karma is repaying me.

Today I see Cirque du Soleil with my family and Simon. I am so fucking stoked. What a fantastic weekend.