small, orange, and far away...but still so beautiful...::sigh::

Patrick Wolf (or Patrick Wolf's Wind in the Wires album) has the dubious distinction of being the last album I heard before landing in hospital for two weeks last October/November. Thankfully, this time hearing "Wind in the Wires" (the song) was a much happier occasion - an amazing revelation on the first evening in October 2007 and the first time Monsieur Wolf has graced the Nation's capital. And hopefully not the last :)

I'd never been to the Black Cat before, and it's not in the greatest of neighborhoods, but tell me, what nightclub is? (That said, I'm so glad I went - had I been too scared to venture into a dodgy part of D.C., I really would have regretted it. And I feel a lot more confident about gig-going after having gone to this one. I haven't been to a club show since the Shibuya-AX in Tokyo, June 2001.) Being that I went by myself, I allowed myself some extra time. The directions had said it was about three blocks away from the U Street/Cardozo Metro station. Yes, it was three blocks away, but it seemed like an awfully long three blocks. I knew I had arrived when I saw a rather long line of people that had already formed, walked past them, saw the marquee of the Black Cat, then went back in line. It wasn't until after 8.15 that the door finally opened and people slowly milled inside. This was, of course, after the ID and bag checks. I made the ID checker guy laugh, because I gave him my ID and said, "don't worry, I'm old. I don't know how many people got the stamp to drink, but it must not have been too many b/c during the gig I was surrounded by people with Xs on their hands; also, I'd gone to get a drink from the Red Room Bar inside the Black Cat and the bar was pretty empty, save for a couple of uncommunicative guys sitting there drinking and not paying attention to anyone else. Had I been in a pub in England, I'm almost positive someone would have tried to chat me up. Ah well...I sat there for about 45 minutes drinking my draft Stella and resting my feet, a very good decision b/c otherwise I would have been on my feet for over 3 hours. Then around 9.00 I went up to the main stage and to my surprise (and disappointment) there was already a decent-sized crowd gathered by the stage. So much for being up front. (I am saying this now, but I am going to have to drag some friends down with me next time he or someone else plays in D.C., I am not going to stand for hours outside a club I'm not familiar with by myself but I'd do with a bunch of friends. Just so I could get up front. b/c it really sucks to be short :P)

The opening act was Bishi, who Patrick later introduced as his best friend (awwww!). (A little digging around online over the last couple days I found an article from 2005 in which he says they met back when he was 11, they had a romantic relationship [!], worked together on her album, then had a falling out when her management took the stuff he was working on and messed with it. I must have patched things up, based on the way they were hugging and kissing at the end of the show, teehee.) She started a little after 9.00, so I had good timing. I couldn't for the life of me take a decent photo of Bishi - partially due to the taller girls in front of me, but more likely b/c Bishi didn't really stay still long enough for me to take a decent photo - but I've got two blurred one, if you're really in the mood to see her outfit [pic 1] [pic 2]. I would also like to state here that it really sucks that the Metro stops so early on weeknights b/c had I been able to stay longer, I not only would have caught Patrick's encore, I would have also been able to probably meet Bishi and buy her music. She had said she'd be milling about in the crowd during the show and selling some CDs, but I couldn't take my eyes off of Patrick during his performance, so...sorry Bishi! More Bishi music investigation shall be required by this girl...

FYI, I believe she did five or six songs; there was a song about a party, "Nights at the Circus," "Magus" (with a mention of Aleister Crowley, interesting to me b/c Jimmy Page was obssessed with him during Led Zeppelin's heyday), a song about London transport (she quipped, "overpriced but always available, a bit like porn") and "On My Own Again" (she described this as an accidental Bollywood-style theme song, despite her upbringing of seeing only films that had singing bishops and no Bollywood features, ever). She only played for about 30 minutes. She softly said "thanks" after the polite clapping that followed each of her songs. I have to say, she really blew me away with her sitar prowess. It had never occurred to me that you could play a sitar like a guitar, standing up and rocking it out onstage. You always see Ravi Shankar sitting on the ground with his, don't you?

Then began what seemed to be the longest wait of my life. I was glad I'd worn trainers with socks b/c had I worn sandals or anything else with heels, I'd probably still have sore feet. I had called the Black Cat a couple weeks back to ask them when they thought Patrick would take stage; the estimate was 9.30, with the opening act coming on at 9.00. D.C. has a 11.00 curfew for the under 18s, that wouldn't affect me but I figured Patrick, knowing full well that he was staging an all-ages show, would be smart enough to plan his gig to finish before 11. Plus, Bishi had kept her end of the bargain. I knew I had to bail by 11.25 or so just to make sure I could hoof it back those three-plus blocks back to the Metro station, so I wouldn't get stranded in downtown D.C. So I was just standing there, craning my neck and trying to figure out a way to ease my body forward a bit to help my field of vision. There were three college-age guys near me who were kind enough to let some shorter girls in front of them, but alas, they didn't let me, despite my attempts to flutter my eyelids and smile. The roadies (I think?) were setting up things, putting down a lemonade-y looking drink for Patrick and a couple Coronas and bottled water for the iBook guy, and setlists for everyone. Some of the girls closer up were looking at the setlist set up for Victoria (the violinist stage left) who was standing literally an arm's length away from me during Patrick's set (never mind the two girls who blocked my path). My neck and back started to go stiff and I kept looking at my concert, thinking, "where the heck is he? Please tell me he plans to show!"

During this wait, I had time to examine the stage set-up. The background looked to be a recreation of the "stars" in The Magic Position liner notes. Unfortunately, being situated by two relatively tall girls, I couldn't take a photo of Patrick's ukelele or any of his other instruments. (Fortunately and laughably, one of the girls helpfully blocked a stage light that would have been shining right in my eye for most of the concert, so I'm not complaining about her too much.) I was on the right-hand side (why do I always end up there, for all gigs? lol my Morrissey friends laugh at the fact that somehow, the ticket gods think I need to be on Jesse Tobias's side of the stage every time I see Morrissey...) but this proved to be a wise decision b/c he spent most of the night on our side, so I got plenty of relatively in-your-face Patrick that night at my second/third "row" position. Was it magic? I think it was :)

Patrick takes the stage and gets comfy on a stool with his ukelele

Finally, Patrick and company took to the stage with thunderous applause. He had on these pale blue denim cutoffs (so I could see his horseshoe tat on the back of his right leg, ha!), a blue vest with no shirt, what appeared to be black girls' hair bands on his right wrist, a skinny orange "scarf" that hung around his neck (later he would tie it arund his head like a hippie), a blue and gray way-too-long/big necklace, a green (jade?) pendant, and to top it all off, a mini-crown of feathers above his right eye (uh, was that for the Redskins?). (I was hoping he'd throw the feathers out to the audience, but he ended up taking it off before launching into some of the more dancey numbers during the second half of the show.) He had on some amazing stage makeup and glitter all over. Overall, very flamboyant, but who cares? Patrick Wolf can pull it off.

He started things off right, perched on that stool with his ukelele, launching into a solo, acoustic version of "Wind in the Wires." My heart dropped to the floor with this surprising start as I silently mouthed the words. Two photos from the first song:

"like a bird, in an aviary..."

"sing it to the stars, singing to be free..."

The onslaught of musical beauty has just begun. Patrick went straight into "Overture" next - it's probably my favourite song off of The Magic Position, because I find the lyrics so powerful. It's a very swift kick in the rear to anyone who's too mousy, shy, and sensitive to go out there and sing his/her song. Being an individual, he says in the song, is what a person needs to be to live life to the fullest. But I couldn't recover yet. Then he said he wanted to do something not on the setlist and from the opening bars, I thought, he's going to sing "Teignmouth," OMG! This is the song I've woken up to every morning for work - and puts me into a decent enough mood to get up and go to work. More pic goodness:

lookin' pretty happy

Patrick Woof...I mean, Patrick Wolf

later on in the show, looking a bit possessed (maybe during "Jacob's Ladder"?)

in a good mood (I'm thinking "Accident and Emergency")

all in all, from about 10.00 to 11.30, here is... the approximate setlist from my fuzzy memory (not in perfect order) Wind in the Wires (solo acoustic) Overture (violin duel with Victoria) Teignmouth (he wanted to add something that wasn't on the setlist), seguing into... The Shadowsea London Pigeon Song Bluebells To the Lighthouse Paris Jacob's Ladder, seguing into... Tristan Accident and Emergency The Libertine (nearly polka style) Magpie (with Bishi [instead of Marianne Faithfull]) The Stars (extended) --- Barghest (unreleased song - debut?) Note: In my mind, I thought he must have played either "The Railway House" or "The Gypsy King" but I can't be sure. But it could be because during the weeks leading up to the concert, I listened to practically nothing but Wind in the Wires and The Magic Position on my Dell DJ at work. By the evening of the gig, I felt as if I was subliminally channeling the songs off those albums. It's too bad he didn't play these, but I would have wanted to hear: The Magic Position (handclaps and all; more audience participation than A&E) Get Lost Enchanted (oh, the piano!) This Weather Lands End (which he played the previous night in Philly) and anything else off Wind in the Wires

Here's a somewhat lengthy moment of talking from the shy Patrick, transcribed from a video clip by PhoenixSeraph on YouTube:

• I don't know much about your culture or your people or the politics ::boos from the crowd:: But it's like if I lived in Westminster, right? If I lived in, um, Parliament Square. You know, it's kinda the like the size of where the Houses of Parliament, kinda. It's a shame you have it on your doorstep, right? ::somewhat silent:: Obviously this is like somebody who's got a broken leg, and someone goes up to them, "you have a broken leg, right?" ::laughter:: "And you've got one eye." ::more laughter:: I'm not being horrible, I just don't know much about it. I was... I had lunch, I tried to read up about the area... ::more laughter:: went to some thrift stores, and you know, ate some spaghetti... ::more laughter:: had some margaritas... ::yet more laughter:: so I can see there's a very human aspect to this city. I did put George Bush on the guestlist. You know, I want to do a duet. That would be great! But until that happens, I should go on with the set. Maybe he'll be there for the encore. *talking to himself, looking at the ground at the setlist* All right, what have we got today? ::audience starts making requests, including yours truly for "Tristan" at 1.39:: Some songs die over a period of a year, and they're dead, maybe they'll be resurrected in a few years... *laughs to himself after a barrage of requests* Yeah, that's the thing, I didn't ask you for a song. I was asking myself! so... ::laughter:: *walks back to the iBook man* Sorry, the whole politics thing, it's not really the place or time, is it? My very slow English brain is trying to process certain thoughts. Um...*indistinct* so we'll stay with that, "To the Lighthouse"...

• My comments about the above? Yes, we live in a politics-charged city, but many of us - especially the ones that can think for themselves - don't dwell on the fact that Washington is a political city. No, some of us are actually individuals who can have a good time and appreciate music without having to get totally pissed (despite what some people say on the PW community on LJ).

  I find it funny that he ate spaghetti, when he had complained of eating fettucine before a radio show appearance in 2006 and it making him feel sick like he couldn't perform (I forget, either John Kennedy's or Tom Robinson's back in England). And for some reason he thinks margaritas are representative of Washington's people? Uhh...he needs to come back to D.C., he doesn't know much about the city, I can tell him about it, I've lived here long enough (all my life, heh). I'll volunteer to be your tour guide next time, okay Patrick?

shy, sensitive Patrick - my fave pic from the night

Other notes: I knew he couldn't and wouldn't leave us without doing "Tristan." Yes, he is alive! ::grin:: What I really liked was the segue into "Tristan" from "Jacob's Ladder," which was described as a song he'd written after putting out Lycanthropy, when everyone was against him, the record companies didn't want him, and the world was shocked by his first album. He was singing to a part of himself named Jacob. "Accident and Emergency" was fun because I think it was the one song everyone seemed to know and could sing along to. At least it seemed like everyone yelled out "sing!" when he put the mike into the crowd. The beats were so much louder than I remembered for that song, listening to the video captures some people have made on YouTube make it sound like music from a pinball machine or a video arcade (almost). I suppose that's a con (or possibly a pro?) of using prerecorded backbeats from an electronic source like a iBook. Bishi doing the Marianne Faithfull bits of "Magpie" was a wonderful surprise, and awwwww, Patrick thanked Bishi for being there and gave her a hug and kiss, twice. How nice it must be to have a good friend to go to work everyday with. It must make the strain of touring in an unfamiliar place that much easier. I missed the encore but apparently I didn't miss too much, as I stayed for the beginning of "Barghest" (an unreleased track) before I had to leave. Before that, Patrick had mentioned something about a new label of his or something (?) and I'm going to do some investigating on that b/c my muse has been awakened by this gig, I've got all these creative juices flowing to write some songs now. For me, the highlights were definitely "Teignmouth," "Overture," "Tristan," "Accident and Emergency," and "The Stars." Thtat's a lot of highlights, innit? I am now scheming ways of getting to blighty - I've even thought about putting myself in harm's way to get amongst the crazy English fans, glack! - if he plans a tour back at home next year. There's no way I can make it to Japan, Australia, or England this year, so I'll have to wait until 2008 or later. Hohum...

It's been a couple days now since I've the gig, and I'm still in a state of enthralled shock. He's definitely a performer I'd want to see again, because he puts himself out there - "skull down to the feet, all out for blood and sweat and meat" - in order to put on a lively stage show. He's been compared to David Bowie and Morrissey. This must be for lack of a better comparison to anyone else, because besides perhaps for the blurring of the line between male and female, I don't really see the similarities. Another failed attempt by the media to put a performer into a easy, definable box when Patrick Wolf - the artist, musician, and entertainer - defies any definition. Unique, inventive, inspiring, emotional. That's what Patrick Wolf is to me. I can't wait to see what other amazing music he's going to make for the rest of us.

posted 07.10.07
moved on over 06.09.09
interviews collected from the Web about this gig
gig-going habits