Rendered Speechless

Amanda Palmer played at Berbati's Pan last night. Since I still haven't forgotten the occasion on which Los Amigos Invisibles started their show right on time with nary an opening act, I made sure to show up as close to 9:30 p.m. as I could. Shit, I even drove.

So naturally, there were opening acts. The first was a rather twee-sounding five-piece from, I'm guessing, Seattle. They sounded lovely & all, but I think my problem with them is aptly summed up with my reaction to the girl singer - I found her Feist-ish & irritatingly adorable. Like, she was really cute, but looked kinda like she sweats tea & has a ruffled bedskirt. Not that there's anything wrong with that, but Amanda Palmer could have made that girl crumple just by looking at her. Also, I always get a little pissy when all the people playing instruments are dudes, & the chick is just up there singing. You probably wouldn't snap in half if you picked up a guitar, sweetie. Or hell, a tambourine. An odd choice of band. I didn't catch their name, unfortunately.

After they were finished, I went off to the smoking area of Berbati's Pan. While I was standing there, Amanda Palmer came out of the bathroom! We had a weird moment! She walked in my general direction & then looked at me & we locked eyes. I felt like she expected me to say something, but literally the only things I could think of were "I love you" & "You're shorter than I would have guessed". Both of which seemed completely inappropriate in totally different ways, so I managed to choke them back & limit myself to a sort of half-smile. Probably the same one that shows up on my Oregon driver's license, making me look retarded. AWESOME.

I thoroughly enjoyed the next act, Estradasphere. You haven't lived until you've heard Slash's guitar solo from "Sweet Child O' Mine" on the violin, let me tell you. They're actually really awesome, but this was probably the funniest thing that happened all night:


(Okay, so that's not the performance from last night, but close enough. I saw the video & the accordion player's "sign language" interpretation.)

They stayed on stage to accompany Palmer's set. What can I say? She really is fabulous. Last night she was wearing a lovely mocha-colored coat dress, the bottom half unbuttoned, & worn striped stockings with a black garter belt & black rufflebutt panties. (For the encore she lost the coat dress & added a Black Sabbath t-shirt.) Apparently, she's recording a solo album with, *cough*, Ben Folds (I'm trying to not hold it against you, darlin'), but she's also up in Seattle recording some stuff for it with Estradasphere. It's not a tour - as she said at one point, they'd been on tour for a whole eight hours. I'm pretty sure it's just 'cause she likes Portland. She hinted vaguely at it when she said, "This city is fucking awesome." The show overall was delightfully disorganized. She did a couple of Brecht covers (I've always liked Brecht a great deal - it's Brechtianism I tend to find overly pedantic & dull). She also played the astronaut song that she played almost exactly a year ago at the Crystal Ballroom, & it made me cry again. I know. So weird. Turns out that she had actually written the song the day of the Crystal Ballroom show.


(Again, not the performance from last night.)

Also, they did a cover of a Madonna song (one from the first album, can't remember the name), & she got down off the stage & touched my arm! I think Amanda Palmer is in love with me. Imagine the possibilities. We could run off together & play My Little Ponys & shop for garter belts & stockings. It would be fierce. It would be girly.

It would be beautiful.