boyziggy and I went to see Nellie McKay at The Independent in SF. Neither of us had been to this Western Addition venue before. It featured table seating with candles, a full bar, and decent stagelights, though Ziggy wasn't thrilled with the sound equipment. At ten bucks a ticket the price was right, at least until they tacked on $3.50 per for taxes and fees.The doors opened at 7 but Nellie didn't come on until nearly 10:30 p.m.; she was preceded by two opening acts, Hyim and Beth Waters. Hyim did a few good tunes but had some snoozers as well. He had a decent sense of humor, played the baby grand piano and acoustic guitar well, and encouraged audience participation. Waters, though competent and attractive, had me looking at my watch waiting for Nellie to come out.
Nellie gave a fantastic performance; she's an amazingly funny and talented singer and pianist, and only nineteen years old. Her musical style was all over the map, from rock to rap to jazz, with a rapid-fire delivery of lyrics on many tunes. The audience went wild and got her out for three encores. She is definitely an artist to watch, though her style may be too quirky and controversial to launch her into superstardom. I must thank Ziggy's friend Jessica for introducing us to her wonderful music.
And with that, I think I'm going to take a break from LJ for awhile. The Internet and online communities have their place, but I seem to have developed an unhealthy mindset from obsessive e-mail-, LJ-, IM-, and Orkut-usage over the last few months. I'm not deleting my account or anything, just going to concentrate on other things for now. I'll still check my e-mail of course, but not as often.
(This is not an April Fool's Joke, not that anyone should think that necessarily.)
