You Are The Best Thing
Wednesday night, November 5th, Chris and I walked giddily up to the Arlene Schnitzer Auditorium in downtown Portland to find our seats for a show that I had been admittedly looking forward to ever since the first time I heard Ray LaMontagne’s voice crooning out of my car stereo, years ago when I still lived in Washington State, his voice having been added to the symphony of sound already existing on a CD Chris had made me called the I heart Kerri Anne Mix, Volume I Can’t Remember The Exact Number (but there were five, total) and the CD cover looked a bit like this:
I remember the CD was almost exactly that color, and that Chris’ hearts looked a bit like lop-sided butts.
We went to see Ray LaMontagne play exactly one day after the United States overwhelmingly elected Barack Obama as our next president, and the air inside the beautifully old operatic-looking auditorium was one of excitement and celebration.
From beginning to end Ray’s show was, in a word, hopeful, and both he and his opener (Leona Naess, who is fidgety and brilliant; no really, go buy her CD right now) made mention of of our new President Elect Barack Obama, Ray himself calling him “a beautiful beautiful beautiful man,” while Leona played her entire opening set wearing a t-shirt showcasing Obama’s visage on the front.
Ray opened with You Are The Best Thing from his newest album, and closed with an amazing and unexpected second encore of John Lennon’s Imagine, and the entire time he was on stage I was smiling, not only because his voice is magic, his talent and passion so profound and tangibly felt during a live show, but also because from where he stood on the stage and from where I was sitting it felt like he was singing directly to me.
I even drew you a picture (in Microsoft Paint! Which I’m pretty sure I haven’t used since I was in Junior High) to help illustrate the complete Ray-to-Kerri stage-to-seat ratio:
See? Totally singing just to me.
And of course to Chris, and an auditorium full of fans, but it was dark, see, and anyway the room blurred a bit whenever Ray was singing.
In fact, I was so enthralled by Ray’s performance that I almost forgot how obnoxious the four people sitting behind us were during the entire show.
I almost forgot about how they oh so loudly decided during one set, “He’s like a sexy Jesus.” Which is, arguably, quite accurate, and we laughed. But they quickly spiraled from humorous to Embarrassing Concert Drunks, and a few minutes after they were asked for the third time to get their multiple alcoholic beverages out of the aisle, we both sat mouth agape as one of the classier fellows in the foursome burped so loudly our entire section heard him, and then, not two minutes later, we could hear him and his presumably blind and deaf date making out right behind us. Yeah, that situation was pretty much gross to the 10th power.
The overall performance also almost made me forget about the time one of them rudely yelled “Continue!” when he paused for a moment to talk about how he was feeling about the election, how excited he was, how he just wanted to dance and celebrate, so excited he had just completely forgotten the lyrics to Burn. The slurred “Continue!” that rose from behind us as we reflexively sunk lower in our seats–that was the moment when Chris and I looked at each other in horror and my eyes said “SO HELP ME,” and his eyes said “I’m going to punch this guy in the face if he does not STOP TALKING and also, can he please stop breathing his raunchy beer breath all over the backs of our necks?”
But ultimately, instead of loud-mouthed drunkards who shouldn’t be allowed entry into a concert as rad as Ray’s, when I think back on November 5th, and my first Ray LaMontagne show, I’ll remember how, for his first encore, Ray played Three More Days and Jolene, and nearly everyone was standing, and people around us started dancing in the aisles.
I’ll remember how he played Meg White and Hey Me, Hey Mama off his new album flawlessly, and when he played Shame, Shame, Shame, he played it so hard and so true–so intensely–that he lost his breath afterward and couldn’t stop laughing because he couldn’t start playing his next song when he originally intended to.
I’ll remember how I looked at him and took note of his full beard and tousled hair, his yellow and brown flannel shirt, and how the way he looked and handled his guitar reminded me a bit of Cat Stevens.
I’ll remember how, two minutes after sitting down in our seats, I realized this might very well be the best $48.00 I will ever spend.
I mean it when I say you should be a music/concert critic/reviewer. These posts are always my favorite, even if I don’t always know the subject as well as you.
I think it’s great that you and Chris share the same taste in music. I keep hearing about Ray Lamontagne- and guess I will have to finally check him out.
PS. Love the drawing! :)
Pretty much I just like that you wore a side ponytail to the concert :)
I really love his album “Trouble”. Jolene is such a great song. I don’t have his newest one yet.
I love how Chris is just a white circle in your drawing.
It’s totally true — he’s singing just to you! Remarkable you were able to capture the moment on film like that! By the way, can someone pass Bossy her glasses?