Last night The BF, Lucky 10-Key, and I went to the much pined over Dresden Dolls concert. It was at Bimbo’s 365 in San Francisco. The venue was perfect—intimate, yet large enough that I still had to crane my neck. The club opened in 1931 and it has the feel of another era, and that’s probably why The Dresden Dolls fit in there so well. They’re music is described as Brechtian Punk Cabaret, whatever that means. It’s the kind of music that is raw, raunchy, quirky, dark, catchy, disturbing, and lovely all at once. But don’t take my word for it. You can listen to and even download a few of their songs for free at their site.
Amanda Palmer and Brian Viglione are captivating and gracious performers. I was thoroughly impressed by this piano and drums duo. They rock as hard as any full band out there. They are worth the thousand mile trips I’ve taken now twice. I have fully forgiven them for canceling the show in July (it wasn’t their fault to begin with, but when you’ve taken vacation time and driven as far as we did, you’d be peeved, too). I will gladly see them again wherever they’re playing in the sate.
When we got back to Lucky 10-Key’s place last night, I sat down and tried to remember the set list. It’s not perfectly in order in the middle, but the first three and the last three songs are accurate! I can never remember the lyrics to the cover songs! I tried Googling, but no luck as of yet. I’ll stalk some forums and hopefully I’ll find out the names of the cover songs.
October 13, 2006 Set List and Girl Friday’s commentary on choice material:
Cover
Sex Changes
Gravity: Wow. This song makes me want to be a way better piano player.
Coin-Operated Boy: A crowd favorite. It’s fun to see Amanda and Brian play off one another and go wild.
Modern Moonlight
Bad Habit
The Jeep Song: Apparently they don’t play this song live because it needs backing vocals and Amanda can’t sing back up to herself. They played with the stipulation that the audience had to participate. They invited some lucky bitches on stage and they sang, but so did the crowd. It was rad.
Mandy Goes to Med School
Cover
Mrs. O
Delilah: OMG. I was crossing my fingers that they’d play this song. Amanda invited a special guest to come out and sing with her. It was amazing. There were also “dancers” who didn’t so much as dance as just pose. They sort of acted out the story of the song. They had great costumes and gave me something to look at when the biotch in front of our table kept swaying and covering up Amanda and Brian.
Good Day: One of my favorite songs to sing along with in the car. I was so impressed that the Dolls can keep their energy up through the constant switching of fast and slow songs.
The Kill: This is an older song not on any of the albums I have. I loved it instantly and will now scavenge the internet for it.
Sing: The “last song.” It was really amazing because every act came on stage and sang back up for the chorus. The song’s message is really inspirational without being cheesy.
Me & the Minibar: The first encore. Amanda performed this song solo. She has a way of making a rowdy audience completely silent for just a few moments. That’s how powerful she is on stage.
Half Jack: The second encore. Brian came back out and the pair played an awesomely long intro with just piano and drums and their intense looks at one another. You know it’s just them playing beats, one following the other, until Amanda starts belting the lyrics. Rad.
Girl Anachronism: The final encore. I love this song and no matter how many times I listen to it, I can’t sing along that well. It’s so fast. They performed it even faster live. An astounding feat, really.
And this concludes my Dresden Dolls fangirling moment.
