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[JoseSPiano]

DR Cillaliz - Glad to know your brother is fine.  -As for a possible alien encounter.... Has he been complaining about a funny feeling in his "nether regions"?

[JoseSPiano]

PAGE SEVEN DANCE!!!!

Hmmm...  I think I'm in the mood for the...

BUGALOO!!!

-Was that ever a real dance?

[JoseSPiano]

Good Evening!

The Patty Griffin concert was wonderful!  I had a wonderful time.  Great venue.  Great opening act.  Great headliner.  And Great company.

We arrived at the 9:30 Club around 6:30 to start standing in line.  The doors opened at 7:30.  The wait wasn't too bad, and we had a good time watching the group of "kids" who were camping out to buy tickets for the show tomorrow morning.  Once inside the club, we made our way to the upper level, and managed to snag two stools in the bar area.  Very nice.

The place holds about 1200 people.  There is a main floor, and then a balcony level.  It's basically a standing room/general admission type of place.  Even though were sort of in the back of the balcony area, we weren't really that far from the stage.  When the 9:30 Club moved to this new space a few years ago, they made sure that the sightlines from anywhere in the house were good - and from what I could tell, they are.  No columns or lighting rigs in the way.  -They also outfitted the place with a state-of-the-art lighting and sound system.

This was my first time there, and I was very impressed.  A bar on each level.  Coffee bars on each levels.  Food served throughout the evening.  Staff walking around unobtrusively clearing glasses and cups and plates.  A good air circulation system - people were smoking, but I didn't walk out of the place smelling like stale cigarettes.  And plenty of bathrooms.  Clean too!  

[JoseSPiano]

Charanga Cakewalk was the opening act.  Andy hadn't heard of them either, but as we learned, the "project" was founded by one of the guys in Patty Griffin's band, Michael Ramos.  He's basically a keyboard player - piano, synth, melodica, acccordian, etc.  Very cool music.  Mainly instrumentals.  Very neat "groove" - afro-cuban, salsa, reggae, etc..  World beat, I guess.  He had a computer/sequencer on stage with him as well as three other live players, and the performances never seemed automated or computerized.  Music to make you smile and sway as he put it.  A perfect warm-up for the main act.  *And Patty Griffin came out for the last song of his set, and contributed some vocals as well as some guiro.

[JoseSPiano]

Patty Griffin was amazing.  She was on stage for about and hour and ten minutes, and she just kept going and going and going.  She started off with a song in French, accompanying herself on the piano.  Then her band came out, and they broke into a very groove-laden version of "Wade in the Water".  -Patty Griffin can wail!  Her voice is in the Emmylou Harris/Iris Dement mold - but with a great sweetness, and a surprisingly clear upper range.

The place was packed by the time she took the stage, and she definitely had a house full of fans in her audience.  And they all listened!  It was amazing - and nice - being able to listen to her sing and play without having to deal with any background chatter.  A truly captive audience.

After the "last" song of her set, she came out for an encore - a sort of folk/country-tinged version of Smoky Robinson's "Tears of a Clown".  And then she continued with the rest of her "encore set". Great stuff!

And her band was amazing too!  We were both especially impressed with here drummer/percussionist/rhythm maker.  He had a various assortment of "noise makers", and he made good use of each them.  There was one number where he accompanied Patty with just a tambourine - amazing finger and rhythm work.

[JoseSPiano]

The highlight of the evening was getting to spend some time with my friend, Andy.  What a great guy.  We talked, we laughed.  And then we talked and laughed till we could not talk and laugh no more!  And there was never really any time during the evening when the conversation slowed of came to a halt which made all the "waiting" go very fast.

OH!!

Before the show, we walked over to the CakeLove Cafe for a bite to eat.  Cakelove has received some national attention ever since it opened a couple of years ago.  It was opened by a former law student who just decided that he really wanted to be a baker, so...  Cakelove Bakery is on one side of U Street, and he recently opened Cakelove Cafe across the street.  Good sandwiches and salads, and the dessert case, needless to say, is filled with many, many goodies.  I opted for the Chocolate Cake with Chocolate Icing - very good, and a generous 1/2-inch thick layer of chocolate buttercream on top.  Andy opted for the Chocolate Cupcake topped with Orange Buttercream.  He, too, finished the last crumb.

[bk]

Massage is finished and I feel marvy.  Afterwards, Marina, a Russian, translated that Russian Nudie Musical review - it's really quite lovely.  Can someone visit that website and tell me if they have a place to e-mail the people - I can write Sergei a note and she'll put it into Russian and send it to him.

[Sandra]

Eight pages done. I would have more, but I had to take a rather lengthy time-out so my brother could tell me a story about some Life cereal. Believe me, you do NOT want me to repeat it.

Turns out, it really was my brother prank-calling me from work pretending to be from a credit agency alerting me that some one was trying to steal my identity. To get back at him, I hid the Oreos. They're Double Stuff, so he might think twice next time.