last night i skipped out on being a youth counselor to take in another show. i had heard Brooke Fraser was supposed to be super great, and opening for her was William Fitzsimmons, who i had also heard good things about. tickets were pretty cheap, so i had it on my radar. Sunday afternoon, i realized i should go since i’ve been into a few female vocalists lately and would kick myself if i didn’t go see BF when she was playing the small Parish Room at the HOB. i called up a couple of people and away i went.

Blind Melon was playing the main room last night, so there was a mixed crowd milling around outside. as we walked by the BM tour bus, we saw a girl dressed in a bee costume sitting outside the door. at first i thought she might be with the band in some capacity, but as i looked back to make sure of what i saw, the Chinese symbol tattoos on the back of both of her thighs made me think she was just a super fan, and she is stuck in 1993.

I know BF was headlining, but I think I liked WF better. He was pretty funny, and made good comments between songs. He was telling the story about he had just shaved his head, because the long hair was bothering him, and he was thinking of shaving his beard (he has a long beard). He started talking about how he hates eating Ramen with it, he gets stopped in airports all the time, then kind of stopped himself with “Get the terrorist off the stage!” anyway, I thought he was funny. He had a vibe of a guy who should have been on the Garden State soundtrack, which i thought was an amazing soundtrack.

BF on the other hand, I really liked her voice, and her songs were great, but when she started talking she sounded trippy. she made Ryan Adams sound like a member of MENSA (i love RA of course). she blamed the heat and humidity of New Orleans for her strange tangents. Before she played “Albertine”, she told the story about her writing it and her trip to Rwanda. It was pretty cool to hear, and it kind of made up for the previous nonsensical banter.

The one thing that maybe started me off not liking her was someone up front [about 5 songs in] asked her to play a song (I couldn’t hear it, it was a small venue so the guy was literally a couple of feet away I think) and she went off about how she wouldn’t play it and she “doesn’t go to your church and sit in your pews and expect you to play a song”. the BF crazy reaction just kind of went against the vibe of the show. It seemed most people knew she was with Hillsong, so you have most of the crowd who’s normal, then you have parts of it who are the Christians at a club for the first time, so they’re trying to act cool…..then you have the people who are there because it’s the HOB and they didn’t have the money for Blind Melon. Anyway, after WF, everyone was in a good mood, and BF comes out with her sultry voice and is crooning. Her reaction to the song request was like when a record stops suddenly, you know? I thought she could have handled it a little better considering the show.

(sorry, no pictures yet cause my phone sucks at taking pictures, but i’m supposed to get a couple emailed to me)