Joanna Newsom & Devendra Banhart

[edited per my satisfaction] The hall where they played ended up being a very narrow and long room that could hold maybe 100 people tops, the stage not more than a 4 inch riser at the end of it all. We managed to walk right up and plop down in the front row, and weren’t further than a stone’s throw from intense facial expressions and amazingly dexterous fingering of guitars and harps.

At some point I was able to talk to Joanna for like all of 5 seconds, and a guy named Kevin was shooting their shows on this tour for some future documentary I suppose, so I talked with him awhile, as well as one of the guys from Vetiver. All of whom were very cool and not at all rockstarish or out of touch with us wee folk in the audience.

A woman probably my age or a few years ahead of me, capped in 3 foot dread locks, the kind dirty white hippie kids have, colorful and ribboned, walked around with her daughter, who couldn’t have been any more than 4 years old, with an exotic name I can’t manage to remember, stamping herself all over her arms and hands with the doorman’s stamper. And outside I chatted with a girl who was all about downloading things from the Internet, as far as I could surmise. Hilariousness and warmth abounded, at least from my chair. Perportedly, not a seat away things were filled with contempt and angst and some oddly placed hatred for things unknown…which continued over coffee and my final cigarette. But all in all, good times for everyone.

I love being alive in this world. I’m doing a good job and the world in general, at least in my immediate surroundings of thick forests kissing the monotonous highway repitition, is doing the same. Soon is good. Sooner is best.

Up Next: Michigan State