| "I've got nothing to hide, except a couple pianos. And my sadness." |
[24 Jan 2007|01:02pm] |
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music |
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broken social scene, "7/4 shoreline." |
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"Shit happened, in that space and time. But that's what happens, right? Time. Shit happens over the course of time. I used to get worried about shit happening and then I realized, like. This is my life. This is how it's supposed to be."
If there is one thing over anything else that I love about Emily Haines, it's that she can say the most profound things in such short sentences and such short thoughts. She talked to us a lot more, being that it was her last show of the tour and they were "all emotional" and most of the album had been written when she lived in her apartment in Los Angeles. "Long live Willoughby," she kept saying. Which was odd, since we passed that street on the way to the venue, and I kept saying the street name over and over as Kate Winslet said it in Sense & Sensibility.
"Aspiring actor Canadians trying to be American? Watch out. They're everywhere." Everyone laughed, so she took that as a que to drink more of her Guiness. "I used to live down the street from this 99 cents store. We'd all say that we were going to go down and get lunch, and we'd get lunch from there. It'd be like this bar, and it'd be like ... uh, uh." She takes two pretend bites of nothing, and shrugs. "Okay. That's it. Had some lunch."
The random stories were the best. Before I get too sidetracked, I have to mention. The moment she walked out on stage, she kind of snuck out between the sound desk and the curtain, people not really realizing it was her until she was already halfway to her Yamaha. She just seemed to have this ghost-like thing about her last night, which was understood more as the show went on. It reminded me of when she had said in an interview about how she'd hoped that her music was more like a presence in the room when you were listening to it and not like she was someone singing at you imposingly about her thoughts.
That's kind of what she felt like she was doing last night, serving as the emotional tie between hey, this is me and my music, this is what I want to get out, this is what I want you to feel, and I want you to sit and space out and stare at anything you want. I am not the focal point. You just be. Maybe I'm crazy, but that's what it felt like. Still, I couldn't take my eyes off of her. Where we were sitting was prime seating to watch her hands, so. Of course. That is what I did. Pianists will always catch my attention that way.
"I moved to Los Angeles a brunette ... and I left a blonde." She nodded, then started to play. When she stopped, she started talking again, whatever came to mind. It was actually pretty satisfying to see her ramble so coherantly and even say these amazing things in the process, especially when we had been sitting in front of three girls who were speaking loudly with the soul purpose of grabbing attention. They thought that talking about music and name dropping and bringing up topics that it would make them look cool. Well, when the music Emily & the Soft Skeleton had arranged to play before her show started spinning a track by David Bowie and they had to ask, "what the hell song is this? Who is this?" I had to laugh and try not to turn around and rip their head off. Anyway, they'd also said shit like, "Emily is always fucked up on something, she says random shit that makes no sense on stage. Remember at Coachella when she randomly was all, 'Ask not what your country can do for your cunt?' She's probably in the bathroom doing cocaine right now." You have no idea how much I wanted to turn around and scream at them. Fucktards. Emily does not do drugs. She's a fully-functioning alcoholic.
Before that sidetraks me, back to Emily Haines being amazing. "People don't talk about death enough. I wish they did so I wouldn't have to think about it so much." Another pause, more beer. "I don't want to be sad anymore. That's why I made this record." In that moment, she hunched her shoulders and looked almost ashamed that she'd said it, but then perked up and started talking again. "Some people have that attitude where they don't have a care in the world and don't give a fuck about anybody but themselves? And there's like, the person who cares too much about everything and they're always sad? Who says you have to choose between just that? I'm paving the middle. So, let's listen to this song and think about death together."
By far, the most random yet amazing and funny outburst all night was when she stopped herself before playing Reading In Bed and said, "I'm not a lesbian. You guys know I'm not a lesbian, right? Man, but if I was. If I could definintely choose and say that I was gay?" Some girl shouts out, "If you ever do, call me!" and she starts laughing. She goes, "I happen to know the most beauiful woman in the world, and if I was a lesbian, I'd be in love with her." So, what do I do. Yeah, I did the whole "COUGHfeistCOUGH," and then drank some more of my second Heineken.
Did I mention how FANTASTIC all the songs sounded? If I didn't, they did. The first show we went to at The Viper Room in September was much more low-key, a lot less orchestra and a whole lot more hesitation. Not that there were less show of nerves on stage from her, but I think Emily was in less of a rush to prove herself and even less of a rush to get off the stage. She took to wandering around toward the end. After songs would end, she'd get up, pace across the stage, go sit back down. Tell a story. Then play. After she played the whole album from one end to the other, she got up and walked around and then sat back down. "This isn't an encore, even if the lights kind of made you feel like there was an ending. We actually have something planned for you." She starts doing this evil little fingers thing, and she goes, "Whenever you want to do something sinister, you have to do this with your hands." She rubs them together and does this whole evil glare, and says, "Anything that happens after this ... always il-intentioned."
The Tall Firs come back out, and they collaborate and play The Woods. She said the song had gotten her through a time when she was touring in England with Metric. It was my favorite of the Tall Firs songs when they did their set but it was absolutely amazing when she played it with them. The drummer for that band, by the way, is phenomenal.
It's hard to kind of dissect myself from the experience just yet, but after that she did a song with just her and the orchestra; a cover of Neil Young's "Expecting To Fly." Honestly, I'd already been trying hard not to cry all night, but this was just so intensely gorgeous that one or two tears might have slipped.
"I love you, Los Angeles. Are we friends? I'm glad we're ending it here. Not many people do, but I love you. Your flaws are my flaws." She was beautiful, absolutely.
The episode of Carson Daly airs on Wednesday. She played "Reading in Bed," that one is going to air and there is an extra verse at the end, which is beautiful and talks about escaping. Um, and I think we're on camera at the very beginning of the show, since Carson only shook one person's hand and it was Lindsey's. :) Wednesday night, people. Treat yourself to her music if you haven't heard it yet and/or watch her American television solo debut. See how melancholy and uncomfortable and adorable she looked. :[
Here's to paving the middle, Emily Haines.
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