Since I blogged earlier this morning about Glen Phillips opening for Melissa, everyone can assume we did in fact see Melissa at Skipper’s in Tampa on Friday, right? Folks you should know by now NEVER to assume such a thing but in this case, you would be right. We did see Melissa but not without some concern that she "got off the boat".
Glen started his set at 8:30, playing to a packed house (can you call an outdoor bar a "house"? I guess you can since I just did) with people still in line outside buying tickets. A couple of songs into the set someone came out and handed him a note. I figured once again someone had parked in a bad spot and he was going to have to ask the folks with the white mercedes to move. But no, apparently Melissa was in fact going to make it – there had been some doubt!?! News to us and the hundreds who were waiting in line to buy those tickets but that’s a blog post for another day… Glen played on. And played on. And played on. An hour goes by and he finishes only to come back out for an encore since Melissa was looking for a place to park? (Weird since Melissa generally tours with her opener as in tours in the same vehicle – how did Glen manage to make it but Melissa didn’t? Did she go out to buy his socks and get stuck in traffic?) He finishes his encore and the radio station folks get up to talk about their station and their raffle and assure us Melissa will be out soon, she’s getting ready.
Another 45 minutes pass and the radio folks come out again (no sign of Melissa’s gear at all…) to give away their raffle prizes. 15 minutes later we get the first reassurance that we might, in fact, see Melissa – mics are changed, gear is brought out and there she is… orange sweatshirt and a couple of hospital wrist bands dangling from her left wrist. Hmmmm
She sets up quickly, sound checks quickly and quickly tells us that she is sick and asked them to fast track her ’cause she had to play tonight because there were so many people waiting… and play she did. In the sweatshirt, wihch was odd – not the orange that both she and Michelle were troubled by, just the sweats in general was odd. She didn’t chat much with the crowd and when she did, her voice was quiet and tired and shakey. She didn’t drink near enough water during the set – she never does but when you’re sick… (I only play a doctor on the internet folks, but dehydration is not something to screw around with)…
Did I mention she played? She did. She played hard. She had no visible set list (unusual). She played an interesting mix of songs. Not many new ones which I was both disappointed and appreciative of – I’m not overly fond of the new ones thus far but hearing them live, more often, would probably help that…
She likes playing at Skipper’s and Skipper’s likes her. Playing sick, and she definitely was sick – the wobble and grab for the monitor at the end was definite proof if anyone had doubts – but her performance on Friday is the sort that leads us to feel the Melissa groupie lust. It’s the type of performance that makes us think about whether we could manage a trip to Lake Worth for the Saturday show. Whether we could handle the drive home after the Freebird Live show in Jax. Whether we could take Tuesday off work and Wednesday, too, for the show at the only bar I’ve ever considered worth going to.
Melissa did what she does best, she put everything she had to give into her music and we got to experience it. (more photos here) Thanks Melissa – feel better, and if you don’t – then get off the boat and take a break, we do still love you when you need a break to take care of yourself.
**edited to add…Melissa has cancelled her shows through the 11th but is scheduled to appear (I’m guessing this isn’t a performance) at the Delray Film Festival where Decade will be screened. Both the cancellations and the film festival are good, in my opinion. FYI Glen Phillips will still perform at the previously scheduled events so don’t get a refund, go and enjoy Glen!**
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