Last Friday I had a quandary...there were two concerts on the same night, both of which I wanted to attend. However, one of them was free (Amy Rigby), and one of them was not (The Futureheads). Also, I had seen the Futureheads before (although it was a very brief set, admittedly), but not Amy, so this turned out to be not too difficult a choice, especially bearing in mind Amy Rigby's status as my current #1 rock star crush (having narrowly edged out Kate Bush -- too flaky -- and having left Liz Phair in the dust after Liz's terrible "Somebody's Miracle").
Of course, as a crush object, Amy Rigby totally plays the empathy card, since most of her songs involve heartbreak and men having done her wrong and whatnot, which always leaves me feeling, at the end of each new CD, all like, "Those men are jerks, Amy Rigby! I'll treat you right!" Sadly, I don't think Amy is ready for polyamory, given her song "The Trouble With Jeanie", where she expresses discomfort with the fact that her new husband's ex-wife is too nice and too much a part of her life (How can I pick up where she never left off? / We're like a club of two who've seen him with his clothes off / And there's nowhere to hide because it's all out in the light / Can I help if I'm a little bit uptight?). Oh well! Good song, at least.
Anyway, opening the show was Robbie Fulks, who was overall a little too mainstream country-sounding for my tastes (the slow, earnest numbers were utter snoozers), but who still managed to win me over with his rowdier songs, his obvious dislike of fundamentalist Christian nutjobs, and a killer cover of the aforementioned Liz Phair's "Help Me Mary" (you remember, from back when she rocked).
Rain broke out soon after Amy's set began, which caused the less committed audience members to flee, but meant better location for us! Not much to say about her set except that it kicked ass. "I Don't Wanna Talk About Love No More" came off especially well, and she played a very funny song I'd never heard before -- it was the unreleased track on her best-of CD -- "Keep It to Yourself" (You say you'd like to kill the man who broke my heart / You don't think he should be allowed to live / You say you want to shoot the dude who screwed me up / Me, I'm trying so hard to forgive // But here's his address, here's his picture, here's the make and model of his car...).
We had brought our friend Mike to the show (and a good thing we did, since he was the only one who brought an umbrella), and Robbie Fulks was not his speed at all, but he liked Amy and decided to buy a CD after the show. Amy was selling the CDs personally, and I hadn't been clever enough to bring any with me for her to sign, so I bought the best-of CD even though I had most of the songs on it, because I figured, well, that one new song is great, and I would have paid $15 to see this show, so what the heck. And it also gave us an excuse to meet Amy, who was very friendly despite seeming a bit worn out from the autograph-signing by the time we got to the merch table.
And on the subject of merch, her first three albums are all out of print, but they're all super cheap to buy used on Amazon...although the latest one is still my favorite.
Posted by Francis at 01:21 AMI love Robbie Fulks' "Fountains of Wayne Hotline" - I should really try some more of his music.
Posted by: rikchik at July 7, 2006 09:50 AMOh, I've heard that -- I forgot it was by Robbie Fulks! Yes, it's hilarious. (Downloadable here for a buck.)
Posted by: Francis at July 7, 2006 09:55 AMI love Robbie Fulks. Okay, well, I love "Cigarette State" (why do I love smokin' and drinkin' songs so much when I don't do either?), and "Tears Only Run One Way."
Posted by: Erin at July 7, 2006 10:02 AMYeah, Robbie Fulks is one of those songwriters where I would feel silly tracking down all of his CDs, and yet the good parts are SO good... I think Let's Kill Saturday Night is the least 'country'-sounding one.
Posted by: Aaron at July 7, 2006 10:50 AM