The husband and I were walking up to First Avenue before her show and he was asking what kind of crowd to expect. I said probably a lot of people dressed in costume. As we approached the back of the building, I saw this petite woman standing there with a cowboy hat on and some flowy skirt and I said: "like that". Then as we got closer, the husband says "Is that Neil Gaiman?" We both started to realize that yep, that was Neil Gaiman which meant the tiny woman next to him in the cowboy hat must be Amanda Palmer.
And she really is tiny! I was surprised. She comes across larger than life in videos.
I went up to her and just said "Amanda? Hi. Really looking forward to your show." She smiled and just seemed very genuine and said something like "looking forward to it, too." She spoke very quietly. I'm assuming she was saving her voice.
Some folks I know from the band El le Faunt & His Traveling Circus were a part of her crowd sourced musicians (that sparked all the controversy - or "kerfuffle" as she says"). So I mentioned that and Neil Gaiman leaned in (he had been on his phone the whole time) and said "The guy with the dragon tuba!" which was pretty awesome.
I asked if I could get a picture with her and she obliged.
Then we left quietly as not to draw attention.
Seriously, the minute I approached her you could feel this sense of warmth and welcoming just floating off of her. She just seemed so humble and kind. A truly genuine person.
Her show was amazing and it was so cool to see the folks from El le Faunt & His Traveling Circus up there with her (they played my CD release show!).
El le Faunt in the back with the tuba!
The show was blowing my mind and then a listening party started in the the Record Room upstairs at First Avenue. This room is located just above and to the right of the stage. They were listening to some bass heavy music that completely overtook the Amanda Palmer show - at least for me. I get very disoriented from that kind of background noise and it completely ruined my time. We ended up leaving early.
It was very unfortunate.
I love First Avenue and love seeing shows there, but I saw that a show I had thought about going to last night was also going to be competing with the Record Room again and if that is something I have to worry about now every time I spend money on tickets for shows I'm really excited about, well, I might have to stop buying tickets for First Avenue.
But not to dwell on the negative...
From what I did see of the Amanda Palmer show, it was fantastic and I would definitely see her again. She is an amazing woman and an inspiration as a writer and performer and human being.
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