The Regina Spektor-cle

This is how it works - You're young until you're not
You love until you don't - You try until you can't
You laugh until you cry - You cry until you laugh
And everyone must breathe - Until their dying breath

Sound familiar?

Gf2 arrived at my place jus after 12 yesterday and we headed off to Sydney - arriving in Newtown at roughly 4pm. We wandered the street up and down for a while before settling into a dodgy Indian takeaway dinner at 5pm that lasted less than 15 minutes and is still having effects on my digestive system. MmmMMMMMmMMMMMM.

We then sat in someplace called the Blue Fig (I think!) which was next to the Enmore Theatre and very lovely - generously sized meals in a lovely atmosphere. Unfortunately I was too stuffed of oil to have room for anything, but we made a mental note to head there if we're ever up at the Enmore again.

Doors opened roughly 15 minutes late and, after buying a t-shirt, we headed upstairs - row K is at the front of the back section, meaning you have lots of leg room, however the toilets and bar are being renovated up there (leaving only four loo's for the ladies, all with short doors).

Only Son opened, and I think he was alright. He played two songs by himself, then pulled out an iPod to back him up for the rest of his 45 minute set... I don't know if I appreciate the fact that technology allowed him to do it with such good sound quality, or if I thought it was lazy.... I guess I can understand that maybe they couldn't afford to all come over, but still - it was a bit bizarre.

Anyways - Regina was on after a half hourish intermission.

She was absolutely fantastic - I am SO glad I got the opportunity to see her live. She is of just as good quality live as she is on CD - not one of those performers who suck when they're live. She plays the piano so well - it was just her and the piano the whole time, with the exception of the two two songs she did with the electric guitar and I was drawn in the entire time. It just seemed to be over so quickly but did come back for encore (luckily) after not too much clapping taking the show to just over 90 minutes.

She is so adorable - waify and tiny and politely sweetly spoken, saying thankyou for being here and how she has decided she loves this side of the planet. We were also somewhat suprised to see her tenderly walk on stage with a walking cane - I'm not sure what the story is there? If anyone with 1337 google skillz can help me out with the backstory it would be very much appreciated.

We got back in the car just before 11pm and made it back to my place just after 2:30am, when gf2 had to make the extra 30 minute drive to her place. The drive back from Sydney wasn't too bad - the best part about driving in the dark is that you trick yourself into thinking you're closer than you actually are - I was thinking I was almost at Goulbourn when I realised I was actually only at that high-wind part with the open cliffs. D'oh! There was also the part where I ran straight over a dead wombat in the middle of the road that I didn't see until it was close and I didn't want to swerve in the -4 cold for fear of sliding out (as dadsy always warns me) - plus when I try to slightly dodge something, I always hit it straight under my tire which would have been much worse. Unsurprisingly, I was quite short tempered this morning (due to the lack of sleep) and for the first time in my life I double barrel shotgunned and abused someone who cut me off. It was fulfilling and somewhat hilarious at the same time - highly recommended!

I had been quite down about the fact that I couldn't find anyone else to take the afternoon off to come up. No one. It may seem petty, but it was just like no one cared enough to take the afternoon off to help us out - friends, family, partners, workmates, whatevs. Even though gf2 was planning to come the whole time, she is proddly the only friend I have that fits into that whole 'a good friend bails you out of a jail, a great friend is in there with you laughing at it all' type thang. I was totally prepared to get a little star tattooed in the base of my left little toe to mark the occasion of a special friendship, but we only managed to find tonnes of dreadlock and rubber shops, no tattoo parlours. It was good that my social retardation didn't win out - there weren't any totally awkward silences like I was worried there would be - I freak in one on one situations, with only a few exceptions.

I did find out a few things about my concert going style and what pissed me off.

Continuing on from my anti-young people tirade of the weekend, there was a super annoying gaggle of 19/20 yo's p!ssing it up. Seems half of them had actually bought floor tickets and had then snuck up to hang out with their seated friends and the ushers actually let them bunch up into shared seats and sit in stairwells and empty seats. There were four boys sitting to my right and a REALLY annoying blonde thing who thought she was just it that was eyeing off our extra seat. I had a total scenario in my head where she'd sit in there and then I'd be all like 'you wanna sit there, gimme $100' and she'd be all like 'You don't own it' and I'd wave the ticket at her and then be all like 'get out or I'd get the bouncer, slut' and then she'd be all like 'how dare you' and she'd go to scratch at me like the feral she was and then I'd punch her in the face and my ring would leave an indent under her eye. Awesome.

Obviously, I don't really daytravel well.

So, my new rules are:

• Ushers - do your job and kick stragglers out.

• If you buy floor tickets, stay down with the plebs where you belong.

• If you want to drink through the show, buy the DVD and watch it from home. That way you can pause it when you continually get up to walk out to the bar/loo.

• Don't start an arm wave in the seating area because you are a tool and you're just giving us more reason to hate you.

• Don't call out to the artist while they're performing - particularly when it's just her quiet voice and piano - it's inappropriate, annoying and probably distracting.
  

• Yeah you're nineteen, but no, not everyone thinks your hot so stop doing that fake dance that you think makes it look like you don't care and are being silly but you actually think is cool and sexy.

• Pulling up your friends undies while she's leaning over talking to a guy does not make you a good friend.

• The quiet guy sitting in his own seat talking to the girls is going to be more succesful than the guy who acts so outrageous that half the audience think he's gay and the other half think he's just a tool who should get out.

• Boys should never have an overwhelming stank of hair product.

• If you spend half the song talking about how it's so beautiful and you love it then you obviously don't because you are not making the most of the opportunity to actually hear it performed live for you.

• You are not going to be discovered in the audience of a gig, nor is there a prize for knowing all the words. If you want to sing at a volume louder than a whisper, go sit in your car and sing to the CD.

That last point is the most important - at one point I actually stuck my finger in my left ear and turned the right side of my head to the stage so I could hear her rather than than the noisy woman sitting to my back left.

Do you think I might still be feeling a little tired?