good vibrations

last night i went to a concert at warsaw, a really interesting venue in greenpoint. most days of the week, it's the polish national home, hosting events for that orginization. then a few times a week they host indie rock concerts. they sell pergoies and other polish foods and the stage gives me flashbacks of highschool plays. the quirkiness adds to the cool factor AND it's walking distance from home. :)
the headliner of the show was regina spektor. i first saw her perform when she opened for keane at radio city music hall. i was far more impressed with her than the headlining band at the time, so when i heard about this show, i jumped at the chance to see her again. the recordings just don't do her justice. anyone impressed with her cds should definately see her live.
she had two bands open for her. paul, hatim and i had contemplated skipping them, but it had been so long since i've seen new music (besides metal bands) that i was up for seeing them even if it meant going without paul and hatim. (by the way, paul and hatim had never seen regina, but were interested after all of my raves about her. i do not think they were disappointed).
the first band up was the hysterics. apparently they had REALLY nice guitars. i wouldn't know the difference but my escorts couldn't stop talking about the guitars. the guys in the band looked super young, but i was pretty sure they were a local band of twenty-somethings and they just looked young (like people tell me i do). when i got home that night i looked them up on myspace. nope, they're all 16 and 17 years old. they sounded pretty good and may mature into something really good. they were a lot of fun to watch though, even when the lead singer coulding figure out his guitar strap and needed help from the roadie. and the guitarist had a sex pistols shirt on, which is always a good thing.
the next person up was jenny owen youngs. and she was amazing. i've had her song "fuck was i" running through my head all day today. her voice was incredible and she's an awesome guitar player. she told a story about opening for regina in boston and a guy showed up with a rubber fish in his sleeve for her to sign. i thought she was pretty cute and was looking for an opportunity to talk to her after the show without sounding like an idiot. with hatim's encouragement i was going to ask her to sign my boobs (and then take a picture so i could save it for posterity...like on my birthday). but the show ran really late and i was tired from fighting with the crowd and straining to see over people's heads (it's really hard when you're only 5'4"), so i ended up not doing it. i kind of regret that, but i was grumpy and had to go to work the next morning. i didn't want to fight through the crowd to buy her cd, but i did order it from her website as soon as i got home. can't wait to hear it. i really need to learn the lyrics to "fuck was i". i only know the first line and the chorus so i keep singing "love grows in me like a tumor. parasite bent on devouring it's host." and then "what the fuck was i thinking" over and over and over.
and of course regina was brilliant. she has this one song where she plays the piano with one hand, hits her piano bench with a drum stick, stomps a melody with her foot and sings all at once. and it sounds good! she does crazy things with her voice as she's playing complex classical music on the piano...she really should be a lot more famous than she is! if you ever have a chance to see her (or jenny owen youngs) please do. they're both great!
i know i'm raving a lot, but it's been so long since i've been to a concert that was my type of music (whatever that is). the boyfriend's in a metal band, so most of the new music i hear are other metal bands that could only hope to be as good as his band. and i'm not saying this because i'm partial. they really are good. and if the other bands they played with were as good, i wouldn't mind seeing them so much, ya know? i kind of feel like a bad girlfriend, but metal's not my thing.
but anyway, last night was SO much fun...people watching, laughing, and good music. very refreshing. i needed that.