I had kind of a lousy 'morning' (aka early afternoon) - stayed up too late arguing pointless things on the internet, woke up to news that the Republicans were being even more of asshats than usual, and drove to an eye doctor appointment only to discover it had been canceled because the doctor went home sick. So when I got back home, I basically went 'FUCK IT, I'm going to go to that Vienna Teng concert in Boston tonight, brother will you come with me if I buy your ticket?' to which the answer was 'yes'. Drove and parked at Riverside, I forgot how long the Green Line takes to get into downtown but it was okay anyway. We went by Million Year Picnic, and then the new (to me) anime store in The Garage (which replaced a larger one that had been there for years but who's name is lost to me now) where I bought Gintama cellphone charms, and then to the Newbury Comics so bro could look at albums and I could check out merch. Mad forever that X-Men merch is so hard to find but oh well. We grabbed some food and then headed over to the concert.
The whole concert was sort of a cascade of serendipity - I was talking to Fey on IM Saturday and Sunday night, and she went 'Hey, you like Vienna Teng, right? She has a new album out and it's all up streaming on her website.' I went to look and oh, hey, concert dates! In North Hampton on Monday, and Boston Tuesday! Which is how I ended up buying tickets today (and paying $6 extra for it ugh). Then, in the process of trying to talk my brother into coming, he said 'Don't you have friends in Boston than you can go with?' and I replied 'Well, yeah, sort of, but not like... friends I can call right now and be all 'HEY do you want to come to a Vienna Teng concert with me tonight?'. Lo and behold, after the concert is over and people are milling around the merch table and the chairs... I spot some of aforementioned friends, of the DW variety. Which included one I had not met in meatspace yet! So that was a lovely little cap to a lovely concert.
It was mostly new-album stuff this time - which was lovely live, and I always like hearing the little stories behind each song, although I secretly wished for more early stuff. But I think some of that was that I've listened to those albums over and over and over so they've kind of engraved themselves in my soul, and the new one hasn't had time to do that to me yet. It was really interesting to see some of the effects done live, and learning little things like the percussion line in 'Copenhagen' being played on plastic cups. And there was a little signing line/meet and greet after and while I didn't have anything to sign, I went to tell Vienna how much I love her music and was glad to see her again because the last time had been at Club Passem in Cambridge, way back in 2005 (just under a year before I moved to Canada, so it feels sort of like a bookend). And I got an unprompted hug and then had a friend take a photo of us on my cellphone so I can sit and sigh dreamily at it.
(for the curious, the songs played, in order by album rather than by played, were Gravity, Green Island Serenade, Recessional, The Last Snowfall, Antebellum, Grandmother Song, and all of AIMS except 'Never Look Away')
