I Heart The Birchmere

Hello my friends,
I am still blissed out after another fabulous night at The Birchmere.  I bought tickets to see Kasey Chambers the moment her new tour was announced.  Originally I thought my bestie Betsy was going with me but she made plans to visit her family at the beach (and who could blame her) then I thought I'd force Miles to join me, he's my child he has to do what I say right?  Well he made other plans as well...so then I invited EVERYONE I could think of including broadcasting it on Facebook, but NO ONE could/would go.  So you know what I did?  I went all by myself!!!  I had a blast.

The Birchmere is my favorite venue, it relatively small and intimate and it has open seating, so it doesn't matter when you buy your ticket, it only matters what time you line up at the door the night of the show.  I have a system and a favorite seat and so far I have not been disappointed, since I started my system I have always sat at the same table with the same fabulous view of the stage.  Last night was no different.  I showed up at 4:30pm last night which is actually late for me, I've been known to get there as early as 3:30 and been first in line!  Last night I was #20 in line.  I sat on the ground with my back against the building and read my book until 5pm when they opened the door and gave me my tickets and line number.  Then I sat in the bar and read my book (really good book btw) until 6pm when they opened the Music Hall door and called my number.  I sashayed my way right to my favorite table, a 4 top, and sat down and opened my book again.  Within a few minutes a gentleman walked up and asked if I was alone and if he could sit with me.  Well of course you can!  Turned out he was an education professor at Towson University, one of my alma maters!  Also turned out he was a big fan of Kasey and folk/bluegrass music so we had a great conversation about music and we each made a list of acts and albums to check out.  Also turned out that he is married.  Sigh, the story of my life.  Shortly after Mr. Professor and I dove headfirst into conversation two more guys walked up and asked if they could sit with us.  We said SURE.  They sat down and talked to each other.  All three of these guys were age appropriate, tall, handsome and obviously had good taste in music.  I figured the other two were gay.

The opening act was a young guy I had never heard of although this didn't bother me in the least because I have discovered both Red Molly and Justin Townes Earle when they opened up for someone bigger at The Birchmere and they are two of my favorites.  This kid's name was Owen Danoff and he just graduated from the Berklee School of Music.  He did an excellent job, he was funny and self deprecating and he and his partner (who's name was Adrian something) were terrific at the guitar and at harmonizing.  Turned out that his mother was sitting at the table right behind me so I got to talk to her as well.

I talked to all three of my table mates during the break between acts.  Mr. Professor went out to the merch table and the other two and I compared notes on what we thought about Owen.  Turns out they were brothers although they looked NOTHING alike and one of them is a Lighting Guy on Broadway!!!!!!!  Needless to say I SWOONED at that!  His brother was the local of the two and when we had a discussion about the best pizza, he actually named Melting Pot before I could!!!!  We were each suitably impressed that the other knew about our favorite pizza.

Then Kasey and her band came out and brought the house down.  She is amazing and last night she was 6 months pregnant which makes her even more amazing in my book!  She had her dad with her on stage as always and this time she had another girl and a young guy as well.  She did a great job as always but I think my favorite part of her shows is her storytelling between songs.  She played my two favorites "Not Pretty Enough" and "The Captain" but I think my favorite song of the night was a bluegrass primer for Aussies.  She said that they don't really know bluegrass in Australia so she is trying to introduce them to it gently.  And then she played the funniest medley I have ever heard!!!  All four bandmates stood up around one microphone and started playing bluegrass sounding music and then began singing Not Pretty Enough followed by The Captain followed by Stayin Alive followed by Beat It!!!  I thought I was gonna fall on the floor laughing.  It was priceless and I only wish I had video of it!

When the show was over Mr. Pizza and Mr. Broadway waved and left before the lights even came up.  Mr. Professor said how glad he was to meet me.  I turned to Owen's Mom and told her what a great job her son had done and then I made my way to the parking lot where I read my book for another 15 minutes while the traffic jam cleared off.

All in all it was one of my best concert experiences ever and other than the fact that I had to eat a ticket, it may be my favorite one so far.  Definite proof that I don't need a date to have fun!!!