Day 2 of Octoberfest

At 6:38pm, I walked out the door, fed up with the socially retarded artists, the whiny babies (also the artists), the ludicrous clients, and the insensitive clodlike bosses. I ditched a meeting, checked in with nary a supervisor, said goodbye to no one and didn't look back. It was glorious. And it was only Monday.

Tonight, Sly and I hit the House of Blues on Sunset for the Hotel Cafe Tour. I highly recommend trying to catch the show. I mainly went to see Joshua Radin, whom I first heard playing live on KCRW almost a year ago. Rarely do I hear an artist or band once and fall head over heels in love with a voice to the point of exerting effort to seek out live shows and buy the CD. For this artist, I dragged Sly to the Hotel Cafe last year and we lined up for an hour outside the venue (they shun Ticketmaster there). Sadly, we didn't get in but stood outside the door and listened to the whole performance.

This time, I made dinner reservation at the HOB restaurant, hoping to get some kind of early entrance or table at the front to watch the whole concert. But it was a Monday, and luck hadn't really been on my side today. (I left my credit card behind at the restaurant at lunch, my crazy client had called no less than 4 times by 9am and gave me an earful at 5 demanding that I "verbally describe" the animation we were going to post for him in a few hours since it wasn't ready to be posted right then and there....) After circling the whole venue, having our purses searched and metal detector wands waved over our bodies, going up the stairs, and being "processed," we ended back on the other side of the restaurant we started from with the same regular seats. Apparently a gaggle of agents were showing up halfway through the concert and they had to reserve all the VIP tables in the front.

We still had a deliciously filling dinner of soul food and made it into the concert at the end of Schuyler Fisk. Apparently her name is pronounced "Sky-ler" and she's the daughter of Sissy Spacek of "Carrie" fame. Those crazy offspring of celebrities with their crazy names...

Anyway, there was also the redheaded, barefoot swaying folksy singer, Brett Dennen. He actually greeted us at the front of HOB and gave us directions when we walked up to the porch and asked where the restaurant entrance was. Imagine our surprise an hour and a half later when we saw him take the stage.

Joshua Radin followed and he sounded every bit as wonderful as he does on the radio and on my mp3's. There was Cary Brothers, who I sadly thought were two brothers with the surname of Cary. It's actually one guy with the surname of Brothers. Amos Lee was a surprise guest who looked terrified of the crowd but sang one song beautifully in his deep voice. Priscilla Ahn also surprised guested for one song. She managed to play guitar and the harmonica at the same time, in between singing and looking absolutely petitely beautiful. Sometimes life just ain't fair.

By the time we got to Jim Bianco, whom I wasn't terribly interested in, we had made our way downstairs, where I wanted to support these struggling artists and buy a CD. I got Joshua Radin's CD and lo and behold, he was hanging out right there at the booth chatting with random people. I decided to have him sign my newly bought CD and waited patiently while he finished chatting with some other fan. Maybe I was too patient and not fanlike enough, because three pushy women cut in front of me to have their posters signed and asked for hugs. When the fourth girl stepped up to do the same, I moved over and blocked her out like a defensive lineman. It was too ridiculous.

I stepped up to Joshua, said hi, and handed him my CD.
"What's your name?" he shouted.
"What?" I shouted back so elegantly.
"Your name?" he shouted again.
I told him and he was sweet enough to ask which way I spelled it.
I was determined to not be like the other silly girl fans and fawn over him or ask for a hug.
"I heard you on KCRW," I told him, "and I tried to see you at the Hotel Cafe last year, but we couldn't get in."
"Aw, I'm glad you made it out tonight. Thank you for coming! Let me give you a hug," he replied, and then reached over to give me a lovely warm bear hug.

Totally unexpected but hey, the most affection I've gotten from any boy in ages. I'm officially a loyal fan for life. I turned around and walked back to Sly who was laughing at me. After we watched Jim Bianco precariously stage dive into the crowd of mostly women and indie music loving non moshers, we called it a night and headed out. Not bad for a Monday night.