This day had two major events occur. Aside from the obvious Jill Sobule concert (or else I wouldn't be writing this), this was the day I was to meet Jennifer, an internet acquaintance.
How about some material that is pertinent to this story first?
When I heard about this show, I had no intention of passing it up, but didn't know who I could get to go with me all the way to Philadelphia. One person I thought of was Jennifer, a girl who I was supposed to meet at The Church concert in October, but never was able to hook up with. I was the contact person for the NY Church show and Jennifer was one of the people who had interest in meeting up before the show to meet the other members of Séance, the Church Internet mailing list. We became online buddies after the Church concert, but never had met. Then I realized that Matt lives outside Philadelphia, and he may want to go, or at least I can stay over at his place after the show.
Surprisingly Jennifer said she was interested, even though she lives 10,000 miles away (Church reference). So here's a girl I never met willing to meet me at a concert in Philly? I'm a charming and dangerous guy, so while she would enjoy my company, she should be scared. It turns out her brother lives in Philly and she hasn't seen him in a while so she'll turn it into a double event trip, just like me. Matt says he will join me, so the groundwork is laid. Jennifer says she will be wearing an unusual coat and black skirt, just in case she doesn't meet us at the pre-determined time and place.
Matt and I head into the city quite early to eat at a great vegetarian Chinese restaurant for lunch. We head to the Tin Angel, but we are quite early, so we stroll around South Street, etc. If you make dinner reservations at Tin Angel, you get a reserved table at the show. I wasn't travelling all the way from Long Island to sit at the back of the show, so no questions as to where we were eating dinner. Jennifer is supposed to meet us for our 5:30 dinner reservation at about 5:15. She's not there. We go in and she knows to ask for me when she gets there. The waitress asks where our third party member is and I inform her of the situation; that I am meeting an Internet buddy for the first time. The waitress thinks that is the coolest thing and claims that she is not here because she chickened out. I know better. She's just late. We wait and wait and wait and wait. No Jennifer. It's now 6pm, so we decide to order our food. We eat, finish and head to the door to wait on line until the doors open.
Now I'm wondering if Jennifer will show up at all. No big deal. I'm not going to let that ruin my show. Right before we start heading in, a girl with a red bob haircut and a leopard skin coat walks in. what's the chance of this not being her? It is. When we get to the door and I tell them I have reservations, they bring us to our table; the furthest table from the stage. I am not happy. Why did I make reservations if I am stuck back by the soundboard? Oh well, nothing I can do except cause an "incident," which Jennifer has been asking me through e-mail what I mean by that. I tell her she'll have to wait and see. I had borrowed Make H's minidisc recorder to record the show, and set it up on the table, hooking the mic's into Jennifer's black T-shirt which she so graciously took off (va va va voom) so the black mic's could blend in.
The show starts.
Aside from myself enjoying Jill's shows, I really truly enjoy bringing other people to her shows to show them what a great talent Jill is. Over the year's I have brought over 30 people to her shows, with some of them turning into rabid Jill fans.
This show is excellent. I hadn't seen her in about 6 months, with the exception of the free show she gave in NYC the previous week, but that was a collaboration with Richard Barone, which had an agenda that preventing her from doing most of her own stuff. I spoke to her after that show and she said she was sorry she couldn't do the Clitoris song (which I yelled out of course). I told her not to worry, as I would be at the Philly show and she could do it then.
So I am in heaven hearing all these new songs, laughing at her stories as usual. Then Jill steps right into my trap. She asks if anyone has any requests. I yell out "Clitoris" at the top of my lungs. She says, "Ok, the Clitoris song." She plays a couple of notes, explains to the crowd the origin of the song, but then yells in my direction that she doesn't remember all the lyrics and if I knew them. I told her I have the lyrics with me and she asked me if she could see them.
It should be noted here, that over the summer, she played in the Hamptons, and I brought the lyrics with me, thinking she might use the excuse that she didn't remember them, because the last time I yelled it out, she made that very claim. At that Hamptons show when she said she didn't know the lyrics, I said, "Luckily I have them with me" and brought them up to her, and sat right back down in my seat. She opened up the piece of paper and was astounded that they really were the lyrics. She had someone hold them up for her and proceeded to do the song. When she was done she asked out loud what kind of weirdo carried around the lyrics to he Clitoris song with them. There is only one answer to that question.
When I brought them to her she asked if I wanted to sing it with her. I told her I have an awful voice but she said it didn't matter. So I got up there. I heard someone say this was a setup, but he just doesn't attend enough Jill Sobule shows. I had to hold up the lyrics for her, but I was able to do the whole song without looking at them once. All through the song I heard people cracking up, non-stop. I was sweating a little. After I was done, I delivered a note to her from her friend John in California who has been trying to get in touch with her. She thanked me and asked me for my address. Whoa! She wanted to send me a demo of the Clitoris song. I went back to my seat, sure that Jennifer and Matt must be in awe of me. Hehehehe. Only kidding. So I asked Jennifer, "How was that for an 'incident?'"
I borrowed a pen and wrote my address, e-mail address and phone number (just in case. Hey I can dream). After the show, I went back stage and knocked on the door to deliver the address. I never went backstage before. I didn't know what to expect. Were there groupies? Was there a drug farm? Were there hookers? Jill came over and thanked me. I was so thrilled. Her performing partner, Jim Boggia asked her if she normally needs her fans to give her the lyrics to her songs? She said, "He gave them to me once before, but I lost them. I'm not losing this one." Wow, so she remembered me from the Hamptons. She said she would give the address to her manager and make sure I got a demo sent to me. I never got it, but I did record the show, so I have a version of it, with me singing, although you cannot hear me as I stood too far from the mic. That's a good thing.
That's basically it. I don't know how to end this smoothly.