Went to a concert
Apr. 15th, 2026 12:17 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
fbhjrI generally don’t like going to concerts.
I was raised with less contemporary music than most of my friends. The “new” music my father liked as from the 1930’s and most of what he liked was a century or so before that.
My sister was a Beatles fan, but wasn’t allowed to listen to it at home.
I went to a lot of concerts for classical music, some operas and a bunch of Gilbert and Sullivan stuff, but I never went to any concert for anything more modern than that until I was in college.
Then I worked with the AV group at school in setting up and breaking down shows, and as security out in the crowd stopping trouble from happening. (The drinking age was lower then, so EVERYONE was drunk at the concerts in a college town.)
So, modern music concerts I associated with work and problems.
Add my issues with background noise and not liking to be touched, and they generally aren’t fun for me.
And, given my growing up with a classical background, it always seems strange to me to hear the music not played the way I’m used to. I was trained to play it the same way every time. Improv and stuff want not encourage.
There were still a few I went to for enjoyment. But, not very many.
(It’s very similar with Ren Faires. I used to go for fun, but since performing at them for a quarter century and helping to run a few, I almost never go to them for fun.)
I’ve been a Thomas Dolby fan for quite a while: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Dolby
Not actually from his first album and only real hit. I was certainly aware of “she blinded me with science” as I was attending an engineering school when it came out and it was inescapable. And, I like the song well enough.
But, “Hyperactive!” was the song that made me a fan, and that was from his second album.
I’ve bought and enjoyed each of his albums, read his autobiography and follow him on facebook, so I’m certainly a fan.
Back in January he posted on facebook he was going to play at a very small concert venue about an hour and a half away from where I live, down the street from a tea shop my wife and I like and have gone to before.
And, they had a very affordable VIP package where you’d get to meet him, having him sign something and get a special gift.
I bought tickets.
He also announced some of his the other musicians playing with him, who have very good credentials: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gail_Ann_Dorsey
Yesterday my wife and I left work at noon, had a quick lunch at home and drove to Plymouth to have a nice 2 1/2 hour tea at Shelly’s Tea Room: https://www.shellystearooms.com
The tea was very good, the scones were great, but the cucumber sandwiches were the best I’ve ever had.
They have a big golden retriever who came and sat by me for much of the afternoon and was quite happy when I was patting him.
They closed at 5 and the venue didn’t open until 6. The venue was all of 8 shops to the left of the tea room, so we were still very early when we got there. I had warned my wife and be brought our iPads and began reading. It was a very nice sunny day that was fairly warm. I sat in the shade of the entrance, and my wife on the bench in front. It was a nice afternoon to sit outside.
The venue is a building that was originally a Methodist Church, then a Synagogue and finally was bought by the town of Plymouth to use as a cultural center. https://spirecenter.org/the-spire-story/
Waiting on the porch there was a fair bit of discussion between a lot of us. I guess my having worked on one of the synthesizers Thomas Dolby liked 40 years ago counts for these random people on a porch.
One of them seemed genuinely impressed at the variety of things I’ve done over the years.
“You get to be this age, you’ve done a lot of shit,” my wife said. Everyone agreed.
It was an interesting selection of things people had brought to be signed. I had a copy of my favorite CD, some folks had vinyl, some his book, a few photos.
As we had been there early, when they did open, my wife and I were the first ones in line. It went very quick. Handshake, brief greeting, sign the thing, move along. Which is what I expected. It was nice to meet him, even for a short time. The only real information was we both liked that tea shop.
The gift we got was a signed page of sheet music for his song Budapest by Blimp, which is a cool thing.
There was an issue with the concert in that somehow I had managed to reserve myself a handicapped seat. The woman who ran the place told me I could not have done it by accident, and must have pushed a button acknowledging I was in a wheel chair. I certainly have no memory of that. And, I bought the tickets the day they went on sale, and it was not yet sold out, so I didn’t need to do that to get seats.
Then, it turned out it had happened to at least one other person and she seemed more inclined towards a bug in their seating chart.
She ended up brining me a folding chair to sit on next to my wife as I did not have a wheelchair.
The opening act was his base player Gail Ann Darsey. She was very good. Not really a surprise that someone who played bass for David Bowie is good, but still nice to hear in person.
The main part of the concert was interesting as Thomas Dolby is testing a new idea for an album. It is not finished and he asked folks not to share the idea on social media, so I won’t. But, it was interesting.
He is a professor of music at John Hopkins university, so I shouldn’t be surprised he’s doing musical experiments.
in addition to the concept stuff he was doing he also played some of his classics.
On the porch one of the folks there had asked me my favorite son and album and I had told him “I love you Goodbye” from Astronauts & Heretics.
He asked me how well I knew it and I told him well enough to sing along with it if needed.
So, it was nice that when it was part of the show Thomas Dolby looked out over the audience and said “I know you know this one, so join in.”
He was quite clear that this was the very first performance of this tour and this tour is the first time he’s trying this musical experiment, so there could be issues. It was the first time all of them had played together in front of an audience as well.
He did have trouble getting some of the synced video to play and his IT guy had to spend some time on stage trying to get it running.
Most of the audience was understanding, there were a few people who heckled.
My wife said if someone with his credentials could get heckled, we shouldn’t feel bad if it happens to us.
One of the hecklers did shout out “play free bird” while the IT guy was trying to get things running. The guitar player laughed and started.
He got about 29 seconds in and stopped and said “Thomas will kill me if I do more”.
They used a LOT of 80’s music and I’m sure working through the rights to use it was complex. So, I understand doing more than a short bit of one not covered would cause some problems on stage in front of a paying audience.
After the experimental section of the show they were going to play the song of his that made me a fan, but the video just totally crashed. I could see he was trying to get it up and going again, but hit a point where he knew it wouldn’t work and told the others to skip to the last song.
I’ve done that “skip to the end” bit at shows myself and know exactly the frustration that leads to it, but he did still come out for one encore after that so wasn’t totally giving up.
When it was over we came out to find there was a thunderstorm in progress. Since one of the lines in “I love you Goodbye” is about crashing a car during a big electric storm, I drove home very carefully.
It was after midnight when we got home and I only got about 4 hours of sleep, so today I’m tired.
But, it was a good show and I’m glad we went.
These are just the highlights. A lot went on. Eventually I’ll have photos too…
no subject
Date: 2026-04-15 05:13 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2026-04-15 07:49 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2026-04-15 07:52 pm (UTC)I wouldn't be surprised if it's the same one that came up to me a few years ago at the Thanksgiving parade & event Salem trayned band used to do while we were trying to set up the tent.
although I have been meaning to go check out the tea room anyway as you and others have talked about it before.