Sights & Sounds

On October 29, I dropped a video from Melissa’s show in Chicago with the “we missed it” title and said I’d be back to talk about that – and then I never came back and talked about that. And now, it’s December and I have different stuff to say about it. Funny how that happens.

We thought one of the good things about moving to the Chicago area would be that we’d get to see Melissa more often. We were kind of excited to see two shows in Chicago and two more within driving distance.

But, the two Chicago shows were during RJ’s birthday weekend and they were 18 and older shows. Bah humbug to 18 and older shows. I can see that’s going to be a problem with living up here. The kids will never get to see her.

So, anyway, we couldn’t go to the shows at Shuba’s. So, I thought we’d drive to Indianapolis or Bloomington and see one of those shows. But something happened (work maybe? damn election!) and we totally forgot about the shows until after they were over.

I could not believe that neither of us even thought about Melissa until it was too late. That has never happened. Not in eight years. We always know exactly when she’s in our area and exactly how and when we’re going to see her. It was so damn depressing that I posted that brief blog post and decided I would just forget it, forget it ever (or never!) happened.

But, the election ended and more stress arrived to take its place. As I was having a mini nervous breakdown on Twitter one afternoon, someone tweeted a link to a Melissa video and I started surfing around youtube, looking at new uploads. Just for the hell of it, I clicked her tour schedule… Atlanta. Figures. Charlotte. Figures. Nashville. Fig… hey, wait, maybe we could do Nashville…

I arranged the days off. TW arranged the days off. I used my club points and booked a free night in a very nice Holiday Inn Express in Nashville. I booked the dog into the kennel and we did it. We drove the eight hours to Nashville, checked into the hotel, took a brief side trip to a yarn store because TW ran out of knitting projects on the drive down, and then hit the club.

Awesome. Except for the chick who could not stay in a seat and had to not only walk back and forth in front of my camera but had to STOP, BEND OVER and talk to her friend … in front of my video camera. Not only does that make it hard to see, it makes it really hard to record.

Whatever. We had a good time. It was warmer in Nashville. We got to hear a lot of southern accents. We ate at Waffle House. We drove home the next morning and arrived in time to pick up the kids for Tuesday night dinner. And, I’d totally do it again.

I don’t normally video tape Melissa singing Drive. But, she’s been having such a good time with the whole Beyonce’ thing that I couldn’t resist. Enjoy.

More about missing Melissa, later. If this election doesn’t kill me first.



sigh.

My life is crazy. A new Ferrick cd came out (sort of) on Tuesday and I’m just now blogging about it. Crazy I tell ya. Heck, I didn’t even download it til mid-day PT due to the fact that I was on a damn plane in the morning. There was a time when I would have scheduled biz travel around a Ferrick cd release. (Not really, well, maybe.) And then, after I downloaded it from iTunes, I didn’t even LISTEN to it until the next day on the trip back from California. What has happened to my priorities?

Let’s get the basics out of the way first – the cd, Goodbye Youth, has been available only at Ferrick shows since the 10th. On the 16th it was released on iTunes ONLY. Weird but I think I like that a heck of a lot better than trying to pre-order from Goldenrod. That never worked out for me.

So how is it? Well… Mid-life Clarity says it is her best album – ever. I’m not willing to go that far. In fact, I don’t think I can put it in the top three. A few of the songs on it are excellent but the whole album – her best ever? Nah. That’s still Valentine Heartache, I think. (Leaving out Skinnier, Faster, Live which is REALLY the best because Melissa live can’t be beat.)

In no particular order – just as songs pop into my head:

Glycerine – love Melissa’s version.
House on Fire – LOVE.
Hypocrite – makes me laugh my ass off because that is so Melissa.
John’s Field – really nice work with this one Melissa, I wasn’t sure I’d like it on an album that wasn’t live. I do.
Bad Habit – I don’t love this version. I’ve heard her do it live several times and like it better in the old “still a work in progress” version.
Real – I’m surprisingly happy that this “old” song is on this “new” album. I think it works well with this mix.

The other songs on the CD, I’ve got thoughts about them but they aren’t the songs that pop into my head quickly when I think about Goodbye Youth – ok fine, except Goodbye Youth – this one had a lot of potential but something is missing. I don’t know what that something IS, but it’s something. I’m betting I’ll like it better live, I’ll let you know in a few weeks. And something tells me I’ll like it better in the live versions she performs a year from now. She’ll twist it just enough to find that “whatever it is” that’s missing. That’s what she does and part of why I love her.

Melissa has a new song, Heartbeat, and in it – she whistles.


The bird likes Melissa, whether she whistles or not. But when Melissa whistles… the bird goes a little nuts and you can’t shut her up. She just kept singing all the way through the song, whistling back at Melissa during the whistle parts and then singing nonstop through this video of Melissa Ferrick & Sara Sample working on a song together.

And it’s going to be on the new album? OMG. No way. Awesome.

sassymonkey with melissa ferrick. Lat night. Hmph

Oct 17 2008 8:00P
Radio Radio Indianapolis, Indiana

Oct 18 2008 8:00P
Wesleyan University Bloomington, Illinois

Oct 19 2008 8:00P
Shank Hall Milwaukee, Wisconsin

Oct 20 2008 8:00P
The Mill Iowa City, Iowa

Oct 23 2008 8:00P
The Intersection Grand Rapids, Michigan

Oct 24 2008 8:00P
The Ark Ann Arbor, Michigan

Cafe Eleven is a great little place but every show we’ve seen there has had a sound problem. You’d think that would be bad, but it isn’t. We were there early, for dinner (because Michelle was starving), and watched Melissa’s sound check. Fun and interesting for us, frustrating for Melissa, her band and the sound guy. In the end, it all worked out because Melissa played a completely different show. She played most of her set from a stool. She played a lot of old songs. She talked a lot. It was a great show.


You can see the photos from Melissa Ferrick @ Cafe Eleven and check out the videos (pay particular attention to Anything, Anywhere and Nebraska and Everything I need – especially if you’re a big Ferrick fan and enjoy her stories.) You can also see a very good video of Closer on blip.tv. (The John’s Field video is also linked there – these two were too large for youtube and I don’t have a video compression tool on the tablet.)