Adventures (Part Two).

An hour was spent wandering aimlessly around Dublin, observing the sights and smelling the piddle. When I arrived at the venue the queue was insane. I had not expected to see a sold out notice, with stragglers pleading for tickets and offering up to three times the face value. Amanda Palmer fans seem to be loyal and plentiful; this may be due to her consistent online presence and apparent joy at taking every available opportunity to converse and spend time with her fans. The crowd ranged from straightened fringes and tight jeans to aging music press people. Metallers, goths, punks, emos, burlesque performers, suits and preppies all seemed to be attending. It was really refreshing to see such a variety of attendees, it actually got me all excited again and my exhaustion was for the time being, forgotten.

Once inside the venue, we marvelled at its layout. Very dark and very red. A series of tiered seating ran from a tiny stage up to a tiny bar, with each group of seats having an individual table, everything in plush red upholstery. This was the perfect setting; it tied in with her new Twin Peaks themed concept of “Who Killed Amanda Palmer?” a 2008 album and upcoming book, but more on that later. Amanda Came out and sang an acapellla version of “The Wind That Shakes the Barley”, which wowed everyone, before discarding her dress to storm into “Astronaut”. Almost two hours of music followed, all of it remarkable. There is little point in me attempting to fill you in on all of the aspects of this performer, as she does it very eloquently on her blog which you can read here. I will merely say that it was an amazing show. She has a gleeful mania about her when she plays that separates her from a great deal of her contemporaries and her uniqueness comes across in her live shows wonderfully. Enthusiastic and talented, if there is any justice, 2009 will be a great year for her.

I would love to go into a detailed description of the show, but I hate to slip into lengthy and superfluous detailing when, if you want to, you can always either watch the clips, or read the artists blogs. This is accompanied by the fact that it is insanely hard to review a live show without falling into the pitfalls of endless clichés and overused metaphors.

Highlights of the set for me included, “Ampersand”, “Half Jack”, “A Few of My Favourite Things”, “I Google You” and of course “Oasis”. She also treated us to “Trout Heart Replica”, “Colour Blind”, “Dear Old House” and “I Want You, But I Don’t Need You”. I have included a few clips from the show, this is not my footage as in my sleep deprived state of departure I had forgotten my camera (which I am now having surgically grafted to my arm, like a friendly Tetsuo).

Incidentally, Neil Gaiman was sitting at the table in front of us. After the show I summoned up the nerve to say a quick hello. This quick hello turned into a brief chat and I was very grateful to have had the chance to meet a charming and gracious person of whom I have a great deal of admiration for. I got to tell him that I was greatly looking forward to his reading the following day and he was saying how equally excited he was because it was the first time that himself and Amanda had attempted this performance format.

Amanda Palmer & Neil Gaiman have just collaborated on a book called “Who Killed Amanda Palmer?” which consists of photographs of almost twenty different incarnations of AP. To be more specific, it consists of photographs of their corpses, with a short story being the death of each one, written by Mr. Gaiman. The reading was to be held in Chapters bookstore in Dublin, the following afternoon. Amanda would be performing a solo ukulele set as well.

After the show, Amanda was by the door, greeting, talking and signing various things for people. She seemed exhausted, but committed to standing there until everyone who wanted to say “hey” got to do so.

I have not included these pictures so that you can all look at an out of focus blurry fanboy phone pic, but check out the guy in the background.

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