Jay Farrar and the Borders appearance of Riot
There really wasn't a riot. I just liked that title. No, I saw Jay Farrar at Borders last night in Madison, and everyone was very well-behaved. Including Jay.
I did end up stopping downtown after work and picking up a Decemberists ticket at the Orpheum. And paid about 2/3 of the Ticketmaster price. Though I made up a little of that by overpaying my meter by $1.00, since I didn't look at my watch before I fed it. (The meter, not the watch.) Awesome.
My complete masterplan involved stopping at B-Side after the Orpheum, to purchase Okemah there with my skyflynn gift certificate. However, I ended up just buying it at Borders instead. It's a good thing I waited, because Borders not only had the CD on sale, they were giving away a limited edition Son-Volt-Jay-Farrar-at-Borders poster with the CD purchase. Awwwwyeah. It's currently chilling up against my Wilco poster from Buffalo, which is exactly the same size. I hope they don't start arguing during the night.
I got to Borders an hour early, intending to shop awhile and pick up Rushdie's The Moor's Last Sigh with my handy 25% off coupon. Unfortunately, they didn't have it. Undeterred, I picked a different Rushdie book, Haroun and the Sea of Stories. Noticing a decent crowd of people in the cafe area, I meandered over and saw Jay finishing his soundcheck. In lieu of dinner I bought an iced mocha, which was both amazingly filling and may keep me awake until 3:00 a.m. I grabbed an empty chair at one of the cafe tables and settled in for a pleasant wait of reading and mocha-sipping, with a perfect view of the little stage.
The performance itself was nice, but short. Jay only played for about half an hour, but hey, free show. He seemed cheerful and relaxed, thanking everyone numerous times for coming out, and even jokingly apologizing to the caffeine addicts because the blenders and cappucino machines weren't being used during the performance. His eyes were even open almost the whole time! He played mostly songs from Okemah, although my favorite was probably "Windfall." Can't help it; I'm old skool. I also really enjoyed "Medication." There were a lot of old-time Son Volt/UT fans in the crowd. I felt a little like an undercover agent from the Tweedy camp, but it was my third time seeing Jay.
After the performance, the Borders zookeepers herded those people who wanted Jay to sign their Okemah wares into a line. Lynette spotted me, and we waited together. I'd brought along the sleeve from my Rockville copy of UT's March 16-20 (no poseur reissue for me! just the original CD I oh-so-authentically bought used ten years after its release!) but I couldn't decide if I would ask Jay to sign it. As we got closer to the table, I actually got nervous. Waiting in an autograph line, for crying out loud. But Jay is kind of intimidating. And there were choices to make! Should I ask him to sign Okemah and my UT sleeve? The zookeepers were passing out post-its with our names on them for personalization; did I want a personalized autograph? Did I want my poster signed? If I asked Jay to sign the UT sleeve, would he suddenly stop talking and ignore me while someone hissed "Jay doesn't ackowledge the existence of Uncle Tupelo on Thursdays! IT'S THURSDAY!"? Were three things too many to get signed? Which two? WHICH TWO?
Okay, it really wasn't that dramatic. When I got to the table I set down Okemah and asked if he would mind signing the March sleeve as well. Of course, he did not mind. The only slightly awkward moment was when, after he had signed the two autographs, Jay handed them back to me and then remarked, "How you doin'?" I was like, "Uh ... good ... thank you very much ... I'm just going to walk away quickly now..." Or it's possible I only said the last part in my head. You decide!
I did end up stopping downtown after work and picking up a Decemberists ticket at the Orpheum. And paid about 2/3 of the Ticketmaster price. Though I made up a little of that by overpaying my meter by $1.00, since I didn't look at my watch before I fed it. (The meter, not the watch.) Awesome.
My complete masterplan involved stopping at B-Side after the Orpheum, to purchase Okemah there with my skyflynn gift certificate. However, I ended up just buying it at Borders instead. It's a good thing I waited, because Borders not only had the CD on sale, they were giving away a limited edition Son-Volt-Jay-Farrar-at-Borders poster with the CD purchase. Awwwwyeah. It's currently chilling up against my Wilco poster from Buffalo, which is exactly the same size. I hope they don't start arguing during the night.
I got to Borders an hour early, intending to shop awhile and pick up Rushdie's The Moor's Last Sigh with my handy 25% off coupon. Unfortunately, they didn't have it. Undeterred, I picked a different Rushdie book, Haroun and the Sea of Stories. Noticing a decent crowd of people in the cafe area, I meandered over and saw Jay finishing his soundcheck. In lieu of dinner I bought an iced mocha, which was both amazingly filling and may keep me awake until 3:00 a.m. I grabbed an empty chair at one of the cafe tables and settled in for a pleasant wait of reading and mocha-sipping, with a perfect view of the little stage.
The performance itself was nice, but short. Jay only played for about half an hour, but hey, free show. He seemed cheerful and relaxed, thanking everyone numerous times for coming out, and even jokingly apologizing to the caffeine addicts because the blenders and cappucino machines weren't being used during the performance. His eyes were even open almost the whole time! He played mostly songs from Okemah, although my favorite was probably "Windfall." Can't help it; I'm old skool. I also really enjoyed "Medication." There were a lot of old-time Son Volt/UT fans in the crowd. I felt a little like an undercover agent from the Tweedy camp, but it was my third time seeing Jay.
After the performance, the Borders zookeepers herded those people who wanted Jay to sign their Okemah wares into a line. Lynette spotted me, and we waited together. I'd brought along the sleeve from my Rockville copy of UT's March 16-20 (no poseur reissue for me! just the original CD I oh-so-authentically bought used ten years after its release!) but I couldn't decide if I would ask Jay to sign it. As we got closer to the table, I actually got nervous. Waiting in an autograph line, for crying out loud. But Jay is kind of intimidating. And there were choices to make! Should I ask him to sign Okemah and my UT sleeve? The zookeepers were passing out post-its with our names on them for personalization; did I want a personalized autograph? Did I want my poster signed? If I asked Jay to sign the UT sleeve, would he suddenly stop talking and ignore me while someone hissed "Jay doesn't ackowledge the existence of Uncle Tupelo on Thursdays! IT'S THURSDAY!"? Were three things too many to get signed? Which two? WHICH TWO?
Okay, it really wasn't that dramatic. When I got to the table I set down Okemah and asked if he would mind signing the March sleeve as well. Of course, he did not mind. The only slightly awkward moment was when, after he had signed the two autographs, Jay handed them back to me and then remarked, "How you doin'?" I was like, "Uh ... good ... thank you very much ... I'm just going to walk away quickly now..." Or it's possible I only said the last part in my head. You decide!
Labels: concerts, Jay Farrar
posted by BeeKay at 12:46 AM
2 Comments:
HA! "How you doin'?" Was that when Jay turned into Joey Tribiani?
Haha! God, what an image. No, it was more of a "how ya doin'?" than a "how YOU doin'?"
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