6/2008
I didn’t realize I didn’t talk about this… it was a great concert.

J and I got to Jones Beach around 5:30 and the show started at 6. When we entered we were handed a free itunes download (WOOHOO!) card that gives you a code to redeem 15 songs. There was also a Best Buy table, PFLAG, HRC, and several other tables going on… we walked about, got some fried dough, and started to hear some music – it was Mary McBride.

I’ve heard her stuff and didn’t find her that engaging – but live she was pretty damn good. She’s still a bit too much on the country genre for me but she can sing. Next up was Kat Deluna and it’s soo apparent that she can sing, has a strong voice, but her songs don’t let you hear that live. She was basically singing to her prerecorded music – background vocals and all. There were two dancers with her and she danced a lot, definitely covered the stage and such- but between dancing, walking fast, she didn’t always sing… most times when the layered vocals would kick in. She also wore a purple dress that made me think of a fancy umbrella. I wonder (since I don’t go to hip/hop shows of big label artists) if it’s like that a lot, where they spend more time talking to audience and hyping you up than actually singing/rapping.

Carson as a host was great, such a queen and so funny.

The Cliks were so lound in comparison to Kat Deluna it was a funny contrast… loud punk with a singer who tried to sing like cher? a guy? a horse? not sure… however, their bassist is good. Later on the lead singer showed she could really sing, so it made me wonder why push her voice to sound this odd if she can bang it out so much better on a cover song… sigh. I don’t believe I’ll be buying their cd anytime soon but I wouldn’t mind seeing them again live.

Then the bigger names came out – Indigo girls with Julie Wolf – which was pretty awesome. Just them, no band… three of them. They did some new songs but opened with Galileo. They even did Kid Fears, which I’ve never heard them sing live. Jen was impressed with the electric banjo playing during Shame on You and she’s not a big fan of Indigo Girls. (I know, what kinda lesbian is she?!)

B52′s were awesome… just awesome. Such a fun band to see and their songs make you wanna dance. Fred is a funny frontman and Kate really does fidget and dance around the way you’d see in the music videos… like the whole time. Quite the spry redhead. People were dancing, cheering, it was fucking cool.

Rosie O’Donnell did a bit of her comedy act but it was more about equality. She talked about her kids, her life, her mom and stuff was pretty serious. It was kinda a shocker. Like usually when you see her on tv and her old talk show, she was very boisterous and such. She wasn’t this time, but her delivery of lines and ties of sadness with something funny/sarcastic were well done. I had forgotten that she lost her mom at 11… and it got to me… since I lost mine at 11 too.

Then the finale with Lauper– holy cow what an accent! I kept laughing when she’d say a particular word… her mom was there and she spent a good deal of time talking to her. “see ma, I told ya this song was true and yea I know I never gots an A in school but the review gave me an A-. Not bad eh?” Totally heavy heavy NYC/Queens accent. But she can sing better live than she does on her cds. The fun part was that she did old songs – she bop and such – and that reminded Jen of when she was little and listening to 80s songs.

It was totally worth the ticket price and it was nice to feel really comfortable in a pile of people like that who ranged in age. Like there’s always this underlying fear upon leaving a bar sometimes that someone will say/yell something at you – since they know it’s a gay bar. Or just whatever… as tolerant as NYC as a whole may be, individuals still are not… and it was cool – such a good healthy mix of people. I had an awesome time! There’s video I took on my phone but I’m not sure if the quality is any good. I’ll check it out later.