Chad and I went out to a music show at The Parish club last night. The venue and crowd were too small for me to call it a concert, and the music was more alterna-pop than straight up rock music. It felt weird to be out with the 20-something-year-old kids. As I looked around, I saw some older people too, including one crusty, old dude with a bald spot and greasy, stringy grey hair wearing skin-tight leather pants and a black leather motorcycle jacket. Maybe the guy was friends with the geezers from The Rolling Stones. I also ran into one of my friends who looks my age and acts younger than I do, but who is actually forty-eight. She grabbed my hands, hopped up and down squealing, "the Pipettes! Aren't you excited to see the Pipettes?!" I'll answer that question in a few paragraphs.
The first musical act was a guy named Monster Bobby. Yep, just one guy. He had a keyboard/noisemaker that would play tinny-sounding drum tracks and music box quality melodies with the press of one button. He also had an acoustic guitar that he played along with the synthesizer thing, but slightly out of synch. All of his songs were one minute long. He was awful. Some of us clapped politely between each song, but the audience was glad to see him exit stage right.
The second musical act was Nicole Atkins and her band. Nicole is gorgeous and tiny with a voice that belongs to a much larger, sturdier-looking woman. I love her music. Her songs have a full, swelling sound that couple with her echoing voice to be downright haunting. I have a huge girl-crush on her. She wore a lovely midnight-blue dress that was one part sweet and one part rock-n-roll. She has pretty rocker-chick highlights in her long, dark, perfectly layered hair. Her albums will be playing over and over again on my iPod for weeks to come.The third musical act/headliner was The Pipettes. Boo... Watching them was like sitting through an off-Broadway musical with a terrible script about a pre-packaged girl group. How is this band so popular? They're like the Spice Girls 2.2, but with just three girls: Purple-Spice, Fuchsia-Spice and Aqua-Spice: all in matching polka dot skirts. Oh, and guess who was in their backing band? That dork, Monster Bobby, from the first act. Thank goodness Chad was ready to leave after five of The Pipettes' songs, which was four songs too many since they all sounded the same.
