This Tornado Loves You

They didn't allow cameras into the show, so there were no pictures of the actual concert. I had to surrender my camera at the box office, but not before I got two pictures:

The State Theater Marquee for the show.

Neko Case's Tour Bus.

The State Theater, however, did have WiFi, so I browsed my ITouch while I was waiting for the show to begin.

The opening band, Crooked Fingers was pretty good. Suprisingly for me, the crowd was people of many different walks of life, from kindergarteners who came with their parents to elderly people.

I was seated next to a couple from Niagara Falls. They had wanted to see her show in Toronto the day before, but it had sold out by the time they found out. About a third of the way--or was it halfway?--into the show, the guy (from Niagara Falls) sitting next to me got up and staggered out of the auditorium. At first, I thought that maybe he'd had too much to drink and couldn't handle his liquor. Several minutes later, an usher came to his wife and asked her to leave. I never got a chance to ask anyone at the State what happened, but I asked my dad on the ride home (he used to be a health teacher) what it might have been.

"Probably drugs," he answered, and guessed that it was likely a prescription drug like Valium. Back to the show.

Neko Case was FUCKING AWESOME. Easily one of the best shows I've ever attended. Her show was very well put together--she had a screen in the back that projected movies. Neko herself has an incredible stage presence and made witty small talk with her backup singer between songs.

As Neko pointed out, she was touring to promote an album, so naturally a lot of songs from her new album, Middle Cyclone, got played. She also played a lot of her older, awesome songs like "That Teenage Feeling", "Margaret vs. Pauline", the catchy "This Tornado Loves You", and two of my favorites, "Deep Red Bells" and "Hold On, Hold On". She and the backup singer promised us that she'd take the audience out to The Cheesecake Factory after the show. There's one problem with that: there's no Cheesecake Factory in Ithaca.

She played the longest encore I think I've ever sat through, but it didn't matter, since she's awesome. I think it was definitely worth shelling out the $25, plus the Super 8 Motel room fee, and I'd really love to see her again.

On my way out, I ran into Luke Fentchel, who used to run No Radio Records. Apparently, he's doing some lawyering now, and as I noticed in a couple of articles posted at the State Theater's window, writing for The Ithaca Journal as well. Luke was one of the early supporters of Are You From Bingo?

On my way to a lecture on "Cyborgs"...