14 June
Day One of the Guinness Fleadh:
I left the house around 11.15, and it wasn't raining. I got off the van and it was pouring. I got absolutely soaked on my way from the van to the subway, before I even got to the show!
When I got there, everything was pretty muddy, and I tried to pick my way through it, but once you step ankle deep in mud a couple of times, it really ceases to matter a lick, so I stopped worrying about wet feet and just decided to enjoy myself! It's like when I went to see Simon and Garfunkel play at Dodger Stadium and it was about a million degrees and everyone practically got heat stroke
I wrote in my journal "I ate sausage beans and chips and I'm drenched and I'm listening to Irish music. I feel like I'm in England!" and more than one performer said similar things. Richard Thompson said "It's just like a real Irish music festival!"
First I saw a band on the third stage called Rogue's March that I liked very much, and then a band on the second stage called Great Big Sea whom I fell madly in love with and could barely restrain myself from running out of their set in order to buy their album at the HMV tent! I want them to play at my wedding!
I went to the main stage and, to quote my journal again "Am listening to a fairly lame chick singer that I can't identify, since it's not Davy Spillane, who's supposed to be on by the schedule" and when I wandered over to the HMV tent to buy the Great Big Sea album (and Rogue's March as well) I saw an album with the lame chick singer on it, and it was Dar Williams! I thought I liked her! Well, I didn't like her yesterday.
Then I went to the shops, and though there was a large selection of cheesy Irish crap, it didn't appear to be selling well, which was a relief. I got a large silver cross, a Wayside Cross, the guy said, that's as big as my palm and rough hewn and would scare off a vampire any day, and a pair of tie-dyed green leggings that, I said to the proprietor, were too revolting to pass up, before I realized that he might take that as some kind of insult.
Saw bits and pieces of a few others before Squeeze came on, one of the main reasons I was there. I have never seen them live, only Glenn on his own, so it was quite a revelation to me to see that Chris is an absolute babe! I have had a crush on Glenn since college, but never thought twice about Chris before--what the hell was I thinking? I was really thrown by how drop dead sexy he was. Glenn is kinda goofy and dorky (but endearing) the way he moves with a guitar, but Chris is sex on a stick, without trying at all. He's got the moves, baby. Not to mention that marvelous deep voice.
I was thrown a bit by the keyboard player, who looked like a cute version of the dreaded Jools Holland, but I figured it out when they introduced him as Christopher Holland, so I figured he was the brother.
I was down front for that show, which was swell and great but for the drunken loutish wide boys hoisting their whore girlfriends onto their shoulders and blocking people's views. Meaning me, and my view of Chris. Not that it bothered me. At the end they called out that they were playing at a club at midnight and to come see them, but I forgot the name of the club.
My feet were really hurting, so I limped off into the stands to hear Chumbawamba play. They were fun, but I didn't need to be down front for them. After them were Richard Thompson on the second stage, who was just great, then I had to choose between The Chieftains and Loudon Wainright, and I decided to see part one of The Chieftains and part two of Loudon, but I forgot to leave The Chieftains. They were really fantastic, and there were step dancers and a gospel choir and Great Big Sea all ending up in a glorious Irish jam.
It was funny to see the audience react to this very trad music and these pretty geriatric musicians with the same sort of roars that they gave Chumbawamba! They (everyone on stage) just appeared to be having the time of their lives, and it was completely infectious.
After them was Sinead, though I didn't think I could stand to stand for much longer, I stayed up by the stage for her. She was great. She seemed very shy and didn't look at the audience much, but she kept saying "thank you" in a high, silly voice and making comments like, regarding Jackie O "I wrote this when I was about fifteen. Which explains it!"
When she finished, I didn't feel like hanging for the headliners, The Corrs, because I was practically crippled and I didn't know them from a hole in the ground. I swan, my feet hurt so damn much that if someone had come up to me with an ax, offering to chop them off at the ankle, I would have accepted cheerfully, because the lopping off couldn't possibly hurt as much as just standing on them did. Plus my back was killing me because my bag was too fucking heavy.
So, I was on my way to the bus to the subway to the van when...I remembered where Squeeze said they were playing.
Argh!
Because of course I had to go! But I figured I could sit down in the club, which was the Mercury Lounge. When I got there, I realized that it was the same place that I saw Glenn last year, meaning no sitting, a standing crush of people. And we had to stand outside until 12.30 and it was raining and they didn't go on 'till 1a and they didn't stop 'till 3a and I practically died, but I wouldn't have missed it for the world.
I grabbed Chris's ass when he walked by me on his way to the stage (casually, it could have been a mistake) and Glenn tripped over my bag, so the day was complete.
Gotta go! Gotta see Billy and Black 47 and Patti Smith and...
One year ago today:
"You interest Audrey's peak."
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Last Updated Sun 14 June 12:54:09 1998