Newly wed to Willie Nelson: a dispatch from LA
Here's a nice palate cleanser for those of you who've been feasting on the heartbroken famine of my recent entries: A star-studded review of Willie Nelson's birthday concert, by my dear girl, Manic Organic. The most exciting thing that's happened to me lately is that last night I dreamed that the boy I've decided to like still lived with his parents. So it's time for some cameo action, I think.
Make sure you read up to the part about Jessica Simpson's singing disorder.
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OK, concerning Saturday night - we had to fly back up from TNRIK's grandmother's 90th birthday party to get to Willie's thing at the Greek. I don't know if I told you this before, but (name redacted) bought our tickets from her Golden Voice contact, so they were the total rock star hookup that you ordinarily can't get. I know that I've never been that close to anyone at the Greek, unless I came with them! We were in the center section, row E, so there's this "Pit" are where you are really TOO close, that has about 12 rows in it, then our section.
As we were sitting there waiting for something to start, we noticed the most unmistakable profile jutting across the walkway in between the center section and that Pit area. It was Quentin Tarantino, walking quickly by himself (except not really by himself, he was without friends but he had a Staff person at his elbow) with a tray full of goodies to mow. Couldn't see his preferences, but it was hard to miss the fact that he is really losing his hair. Also, we had better seats than him!
Shortly after this sighting, the show started. Willie is amazing, his voice is just incredible, he barely needed a microphone, his voice carries so. He is a true professional. Also, Pancho and Lefty, who have also been playing lately with Townes Van Zant and Merle Haggard (who we propitiously also just saw!) were in Willie's band.
A couple of songs into the set, TNRIK nudges me, and whispers "Isn't that Jessica Simpson two rows ahead of us?" Sure enough, it was, her party had taken up the whole row, her dad/manager Joe was there, shiny little diamond earring and all, and her friend CaCee, that's on the show with her (or was, I haven't seen any of the latest season). No sighting of Ashlee. They seemed to be enjoying themselves. Jessica and CaCee got up about two thirds of the way into the show and made the universal gesture for "We're going to smoke."
So, of course in between songs, I am looking around at everyone, thinking whether they look familiar or not. Many people did, but I couldn't make any more conclusive IDs.
We got up to walk around a bit, and let (name redacted) and his "maybe" new girlfriend sit in our seats for a couple of songs.
When we returned, we were surprised to see - guess who - Jessica get on stage. This was the portion of the show where other musicians came up to do their thing. Half of ZZ Top was there too.
Jessica made a royal fool of herself. It wasn't even very funny, I mostly just felt bad for her. She should never have been up there in the first place. By the time she joined the stage, Shelby Lynne (who was the second opener) was onstage singing backup, and another girl named Susan (Tedeschi -- ed.), who also played some guitar a bit later on, and was good. Shelby clearly didn't know what she was supposed to do, but looked like she was having fun allowing Lefty (or Pancho, I'm not certain which one, but he was wearing a fugly sweatshirt) to cue her into her little parts.
But Jessica - when she got on stage, they were in the middle of a jam of "I'll Fly Away". She didn't really know the words, but what was worse, she has no idea of really how to jam - especially how to jam with world-caliber musicians like these. She clearly was uncomfortable doing things that she hasn't rehearsed a million times before. That's OK, too - not every musician can jam, it is just a fact. So, she was trying to jump in, and it just wasn't happening. At one point, Willie was trying to cue her in, but when he tried to give her a sign, she was doing this ridiculous thing with her body, so she couldn't see his sign, and he ended up cutting her off obviously. It was hysterical. She does this thing with her body when she sings, I had no idea, but it is like she's having convulsions. She is completely spasmodic. When she's standing there, and she's going for a note, she'll contract her whole body, one of her legs will come up into her chest, like she has to totally contort herself just to push this masterful note out, but the rub is, there's no note! She swallows half of her notes, and when she looks like she's making the most effort, you still can't hear much of what she's singing. It was so funny. Everyone in the audience (who, I'm sure, are not for the most part Jessica Simpson fans anyway) was trying not to laugh out loud. I mean, she was really out of her element, and frankly, I blame the dad.
She even made a mess out of singing "Happy Birthday" and insisted that we do it twice (the audience along with her, I mean). Ugh, poor girl. I used to watch her show, and they show a bit of her performing, and I always thought that she had a good voice. I mean, I knew I wasn't going to go out and buy her music, but that's because I just don't like her style of songs. I did think that she was talented, though. But now, I don't know, she just couldn't bring it, singing-wise. It was very surprising.
Willie did many covers, including "Rainbow Connection", "Crazy" (the Patsy Cline song) and "Me and Bobby McGee." I was incredibly impressed. Also, he has this funny habit of just slamming into the next song, without even waiting for the applause, like he knew that the Greek has a very strict curfew, and he knew exactly how many minutes he had (he even had his guy giving him cues from the wings, like "5 minutes!" "2 minutes!") and he wanted the audience to have every second of music that they could. He is a showman in the old-school sense. Like, even though he has been famous forever, he still remembers that the audience is doing you a favor by showing up, and you better give them something to show them that you appreciate that fact. No prima donna attitude from Willie, that's for sure!
An amazing experience, to be sure. I am delighted that we went to that instead of Coachella.
Oh, one more thing. There was this girl, overly tanned, overly made up, good looking despite these facts. She was in the row in front of the Simpson row, and she was wearing a pink straw cowboy hat, with a black lace band around it. Quentin came over to her as the audience drained out of the theater after the show, and hugged her and spoke to her for a good couple of minutes. I really wonder who that was.
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Make sure you read up to the part about Jessica Simpson's singing disorder.
********************************************************************************
OK, concerning Saturday night - we had to fly back up from TNRIK's grandmother's 90th birthday party to get to Willie's thing at the Greek. I don't know if I told you this before, but (name redacted) bought our tickets from her Golden Voice contact, so they were the total rock star hookup that you ordinarily can't get. I know that I've never been that close to anyone at the Greek, unless I came with them! We were in the center section, row E, so there's this "Pit" are where you are really TOO close, that has about 12 rows in it, then our section.
As we were sitting there waiting for something to start, we noticed the most unmistakable profile jutting across the walkway in between the center section and that Pit area. It was Quentin Tarantino, walking quickly by himself (except not really by himself, he was without friends but he had a Staff person at his elbow) with a tray full of goodies to mow. Couldn't see his preferences, but it was hard to miss the fact that he is really losing his hair. Also, we had better seats than him!
Shortly after this sighting, the show started. Willie is amazing, his voice is just incredible, he barely needed a microphone, his voice carries so. He is a true professional. Also, Pancho and Lefty, who have also been playing lately with Townes Van Zant and Merle Haggard (who we propitiously also just saw!) were in Willie's band.
A couple of songs into the set, TNRIK nudges me, and whispers "Isn't that Jessica Simpson two rows ahead of us?" Sure enough, it was, her party had taken up the whole row, her dad/manager Joe was there, shiny little diamond earring and all, and her friend CaCee, that's on the show with her (or was, I haven't seen any of the latest season). No sighting of Ashlee. They seemed to be enjoying themselves. Jessica and CaCee got up about two thirds of the way into the show and made the universal gesture for "We're going to smoke."
So, of course in between songs, I am looking around at everyone, thinking whether they look familiar or not. Many people did, but I couldn't make any more conclusive IDs.
We got up to walk around a bit, and let (name redacted) and his "maybe" new girlfriend sit in our seats for a couple of songs.
When we returned, we were surprised to see - guess who - Jessica get on stage. This was the portion of the show where other musicians came up to do their thing. Half of ZZ Top was there too.
Jessica made a royal fool of herself. It wasn't even very funny, I mostly just felt bad for her. She should never have been up there in the first place. By the time she joined the stage, Shelby Lynne (who was the second opener) was onstage singing backup, and another girl named Susan (Tedeschi -- ed.), who also played some guitar a bit later on, and was good. Shelby clearly didn't know what she was supposed to do, but looked like she was having fun allowing Lefty (or Pancho, I'm not certain which one, but he was wearing a fugly sweatshirt) to cue her into her little parts.
But Jessica - when she got on stage, they were in the middle of a jam of "I'll Fly Away". She didn't really know the words, but what was worse, she has no idea of really how to jam - especially how to jam with world-caliber musicians like these. She clearly was uncomfortable doing things that she hasn't rehearsed a million times before. That's OK, too - not every musician can jam, it is just a fact. So, she was trying to jump in, and it just wasn't happening. At one point, Willie was trying to cue her in, but when he tried to give her a sign, she was doing this ridiculous thing with her body, so she couldn't see his sign, and he ended up cutting her off obviously. It was hysterical. She does this thing with her body when she sings, I had no idea, but it is like she's having convulsions. She is completely spasmodic. When she's standing there, and she's going for a note, she'll contract her whole body, one of her legs will come up into her chest, like she has to totally contort herself just to push this masterful note out, but the rub is, there's no note! She swallows half of her notes, and when she looks like she's making the most effort, you still can't hear much of what she's singing. It was so funny. Everyone in the audience (who, I'm sure, are not for the most part Jessica Simpson fans anyway) was trying not to laugh out loud. I mean, she was really out of her element, and frankly, I blame the dad.
She even made a mess out of singing "Happy Birthday" and insisted that we do it twice (the audience along with her, I mean). Ugh, poor girl. I used to watch her show, and they show a bit of her performing, and I always thought that she had a good voice. I mean, I knew I wasn't going to go out and buy her music, but that's because I just don't like her style of songs. I did think that she was talented, though. But now, I don't know, she just couldn't bring it, singing-wise. It was very surprising.
Willie did many covers, including "Rainbow Connection", "Crazy" (the Patsy Cline song) and "Me and Bobby McGee." I was incredibly impressed. Also, he has this funny habit of just slamming into the next song, without even waiting for the applause, like he knew that the Greek has a very strict curfew, and he knew exactly how many minutes he had (he even had his guy giving him cues from the wings, like "5 minutes!" "2 minutes!") and he wanted the audience to have every second of music that they could. He is a showman in the old-school sense. Like, even though he has been famous forever, he still remembers that the audience is doing you a favor by showing up, and you better give them something to show them that you appreciate that fact. No prima donna attitude from Willie, that's for sure!
An amazing experience, to be sure. I am delighted that we went to that instead of Coachella.
Oh, one more thing. There was this girl, overly tanned, overly made up, good looking despite these facts. She was in the row in front of the Simpson row, and she was wearing a pink straw cowboy hat, with a black lace band around it. Quentin came over to her as the audience drained out of the theater after the show, and hugged her and spoke to her for a good couple of minutes. I really wonder who that was.
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