I saw Justin Timberlake in concert last night.

I don't know where sexy went, but it came back, and sure as hell was up there with Justin on the stage last night. Drool. (As though you haven't heard that joke before. Drool, anyway.)

I can't help but feel a slight embarrassment at being so damn teeny-bopper. But really I'm just a person who likes to be entertained, and I suppose that's not hard. Oooh, shiny.

In all reality though the concert was a good time. I started to snooze during some of the slower songs, but I danced my ass off in the fast ones.

It was very obvious during the show that Timberlake could not be here without Michael Jackson's pioneering dance and music. Michael may be all Ghoulish now, but he really was great back when.

I do have to admit, while Timberlake has a great set of vocal cords, a huge part of the show's entertainment was the fabulous staging and light effects, some of the best I have ever seen. It was very pretty spectacle.

My birthday gift from my sister this year was a ticket to see Roger Waters performing music from the Dark Side of the Moon CD.

It's been almost six months since my birthday, but last night I finally received my gift last night, and the wait was well worth it.

Roger Waters was amazing, and he had an amazing back up band. This one woman, whose name I don't know, had this incredible voice that could just melt you. They performed songs from both The Wall and Dark Side of the Moon, many of them were my favorites, such as "Money," "Wish You Were Here," and "The Wall" (which was performed in the encore).

He also performed a new(er) song, he wrote about how he was hitchhiking in Europe and the Middle East in the sixties, and an Arab family put him up for the night. It was about their generosity despite their poverty and how that moved him. And it was about the world today, and this stupid war in the Middle East. I wish I knew the name of the song, because it was so beautiful that I cried.

And there were so many more great experiences, spending time with my sister and brother and our friends. It was an incredible show.


And speaking of my brother and sister. Happy Birthday, Blake and Nicole! I can't believe you're twenty-two today. Look at us, somehow we've all manage to become adults. How did that happen?

From outside, The Fillmore looks like just another building in San Francisco. It's a building that you could just pass by with out the slightest clue that there is a hell of a lot of history to that place. From the blandness of the outside you would have no idea that acts like James Brown and Tina Turner played there in 50's and 60's, and that this building continued to host some of the greatest musicians to ever live over the years, musicians like Janis Joplin, The Grateful Dead, Jimmi Hendrix, etc. The outside reveals non of this.

But entering the Fillmore is almost something magical, as you see the photos of all these greats hung on the walls like totems, ancient gods and goddesses of the music world.

The main room looks appropriately old, as though the architecture has not changed in over 50 years, which it probably hasn't. I could easily envision women in lacey corseted dresses from the 1800s sitting in the balcony and fanning themselves as some opera was performed below (which would not be historically accurate, but is the image my mind jumped to upon seeing the room).

The energy was so intense that I could feel the room vibrating, even though no one was there yet. I had to remind myself to take some deep breaths, just so that I could assimilate it.

I was introduced to Yonder Mountain String Band by a friend. We had listened to their cd while I was helping her move and vaguely remembered liking it. So when she mentioned that they were in town, I jumped at the opportunity to join her (more because I had not been to a concert in over a year and was excited about going to a concert, any concert, than love or affinity for the band. Besides, she needed company.)

She kept telling me how great they were, how I would dance my ass off, etc. I smiled and accepted this as truth, determined to have a hell of a good time. I took a beer in hand and patiently awaited the show's start.

The room slowly filled up with all kinds of interesting people. Lots of beautiful hippie boys and girls. My friend pointed out a few people who she sees at every Yonder Mountain show she has gone to. One guy in particular, with long brown hair, always arrives early so that he can nab the spot front row center--every time.

Then the lights dimmed. Everyone whipped out their joints and pipes. And four guys walked out onto the stage with a banjo, guitar, mandolin, and and something that looks like a really thin cello. And they can all sing.

Truthfully, I could never have known that such incredible sounds were going to come out of those instruments. I cannot even describe it. What they did was nothing short of magical.

I danced my ass off.

At one point, I was quite tired and a little beer buzzed. I could feel my head lolling a little and my eyes were closed, but my body just kept on moving. When the music played, I danced. When it stopped, I rested. I think I could have fallen asleep and my body would still have been moving with the music, would still have been dancing. Then, I would have just simply fallen over when the music stopped.

"That's god," she said. "Their music is god." She's not wrong.


* * *
"Sing like you don't need the money,
love like you'll never get hurt;
dance, dance, dance like nobody's watching."
--Susanna Clark & Richard Leigh