Her new album's last track has a song that every dog lover needs. She's brilliant.
A few months ago, I might have suggested to Ricardo that Norah Jones was coming to town, and I might I have suggested that I really should be there to greet her. I also might have suggested he get the tickets, and he should probably be the one to go with me.
The power of several very blunt suggestions worked. And I went to one of the best concerts of my life with the best date ever.
A few weeks before I met up with Norah, JulzHOLLA! and I went to see Rascal Flatts. We went to meet a friend of mine who works on the crew - he does stage right speakers. I was so happy to see Pete healthy and working as he'd just recovered from a serious accident. And he also got us free tickets to the concert. From what I can see, and heard on the speakers, he does a good job. It was fun to meet up with Pete, and also fun to see the behind the scenes that go on at a concert and not be a super-fan. I found the performance to be odd. But again, I wasn't a super-fan either.
They played a ballad and ran a video in the background of a woman taking a shower. It was weird. And yes, the woman in the video was smoking hot. But it didn't go with the song. And we're here to see the band, right? If we wanted to see a video, we could watch MTV at three o'clock in the morning. So, that was weird. Pete, our buddy, travels on one of 12 buses that holds 10 crew people each. That's a crew of 120 people. They set up and break down the stage, lights, and speakers into another 5 big rigs. The stage goes all the way out into the audience. There were fireworks, and lots of shout outs in "IOWA CITY!" because that's where we were. My personal fav was there was a tv screen of the concert. Really? You can't just look down and see it yourself. I'm getting old and got tired of standing, and risked getting glares from the fans we were surrounded by to save my back. In all of that, they played for 1 1/2 hours, and a 1/2 hour of that, the lead singer guy took a break. I would take a break too if I had to wear rhinestone studded pants. It looked like an homage to Elvis, but not. It was weird. I'm not even joking. I wasn't too impressed, but can see how the super-fans enjoyed the whole experience. And how all those lights hit his pants displaying a very country-rock sparkle, I'm sure. Still, it was fun to see my pal Pete at work.
Let me defend myself here, I enjoyed the concert. That guy can sing. It was nice. Darius Rucker opened for them, and he was incredible. I had a great roadtrip date with JulzHOLLA! and it was good fun.
After all that, I was curious how Norah Jones was going to throw it down. I was so excited to see her sing live, but the venue was pretty cool too. Her concert was not in a gigantore coliseum, it was at the Orpheum, here in Omaha. The Orpheum is a beautiful performance arts theater, where we saw the divine WICKED. We had a great date, listen to a Grammy-award winner serenade us, all while sitting in the comfort of balcony seats at the theater. I'm getting old. And it was fantastic. She came out, wearing a pretty dress - no rhinestones. And she played her music. She sang beautifully, played several different guitars, the keyboard and the piano. There were some lights that twirled around with some of the songs. There was no video or freaky gigantic stages that requires big rigs. Just a stage, and a band. They could have rolled up in a minivan with all of their musical instruments in the back. It might have been one of the best concerts I've ever been to. A close second to Billy Joel circa 1994.
I love Norah Jones. And her concert made me love her music even more. Maybe it's because I'm a fan. Maybe it's because all of her love songs, I sing along to Ricardo all the time and he was sitting right there with me, hearing them as they should be sung. Heh heh. Maybe I'm old. But I'm a new fan of no flash, no videos, no giant stages or fireworks - just come in and sing your stuff. I am officially ruined as far as what to expect in a concert.
That's how I roll.
