Sunday night I went to go see William Fitzsimmons headline his first show in NOLA. I had seen him open for Brooke Fraser last year, and apparently I learned during the show that I have attended all of his NOLA performances ever. I gave myself a pat on the back for that one. When we got there the room was sparsely populated, pretty much like when I went for Ten Out Of Tenn. I counted the people during the opening act and there were probably 50 people there, but I think by the time WF came on, there were a few more. The opening act was Jenny Owen Youngs, and she was pretty good. She seemed like a female version of WF, with the sad songs and the witty sarcastic banter, so I figure the tour was a perfect match. There was some hip hop act playing the main room, which led to some awkwardness. Obviously since it’s all one building, there are doors going from the main room to the Parish room that only the workers have access to. During one of JOY’s songs, a quiet song, where she’s repeating “WTF was I thinking?” for the chorus, one of the HOB workers opened the door, but one of the other doors to the passageway was not closed, so the music from downstairs was drowning her out. This happened a couple of times in a few minutes, which made JOY stop mid song to go “ok, seriously, what is going on?” (I thought she should have asked “WTF was that?” but she didn’t) The mid song pause brought laughter from the crowd, and she only paused for a split second. After that the passageway coming and going was much quieter.
WF came out and like JOY, it was just him and a guitar. He sat on a stool and played his depressing songs about lost love and death. Mixed in between were the sarcastic comments about how he used to be a psychoanalyst and his goal of the show was to have everyone leave more depressed than when they came in. Most people in the crowd realized he was joking, so he garnered quite a few laughs between songs. The funniest quote I thought was when he was tuning his guitar, and it wasn’t quite tuning right, so he says “come on universe, help me out”. I thought to myself I’m going to have to use that line.
Embarrassingly, I had a fit of laughter I couldn’t control. I don’t even think now it was that funny. I was drinking High Life out of a can (EVERYTHING but Abita is in a can, and HL is the cheapest) and had finished my beer. I’m standing there and thought “you know, if I didn’t care, I’d just put this can on the ground and crush it with my foot…during the show.” When WF was singing, it was really quiet, so thinking about doing this made me start laughing. I have seen people this inconsiderate, but thankfully I am not one.
Speaking of weird stuff, there were quite a few oddities in the crowd. There were a few guys in pairs. I guess there’s nothing wrong with two guys going to a show, but WF? Then there were the hippies with the bubbles. There were three people up close to the stage who were blowing bubbles during the songs. It was extremely weird. One of the guys was barefoot and danced, and also looked like “GPAC” John Lennon without the glasses. His friend in the plaid shirt was blowing bubbles up in front of JOY, and then later in front of WF. I didn’t really understand it.
After the show, I was waiting for my date to emerge from the girls’ restroom, when this guy came up and asked me what cd I had bought. I told him it was the newest one, so then he says “you should get him to autograph it” and motions over at the merch table. I look over and sure enough WF is standing there greeting fans. So before we leave, I got a picture with WF. I was going to type about the exchange but I’ll provide a transcript from memory (for a full on awesome interview, check out my friend Carla’s):
Me: “so I saw you here last year opening up for Brooke Fraser. I thought you were way better, don’t tell BF though”
WF: “I won’t, wait, maybe I will”
Me: “One of my Nashville friends asked me about your show up at Grimey’s later this week. I told her she should definitely go”
WF: “Oh yeah, that’s cool. Yeah, we’re going to be up there for a couple of days. Thanks for doing that!”
Me: “no problem. So can we get a picture? Your beard is awesome”
WF: “Aw thanks, but you know, I kind of miss this” (pointing at my scruffy face)
Me: “Nah man, I just saw ZZ Top, and if you want to keep the beard, it won’t hurt your musical career”
WF: “haha”
(picture)
Me: “Thanks for the picture. Good luck with the rest of the tour”
WF: “Thanks so much for coming”
