Oscar The Third: Ask me to write a song about your country in twenty minutes

Monday 25 July 2011

Ask me to write a song about your country in twenty minutes

I missed getting to see Amanda Palmer last time she was in New Zealand because The Dead Weather were playing on the same night, and there was no way in hell I wasn't seeing that. So when she announced a new tour in 2011 to support her new album Amanda Palmer Goes Down Under, I knew this was my chance to go see her live (and nothing clashed with her this time!). She was in NZ when the massive earthquake hit Christchurch, just 1 day before her performance in Auckland. Luckily she was able to get here alright (though, slightly late) and perform for her loving fans. She brought Jason Webley as her supporting act, he is the other half of Evelyn & Evelyn and a bad ass piano accordionist. I'd never heard of Jason before but I was so impressed with his vocals and his performance that I went to see his solo show the next night as well. The song that really caught my attention was Dance While The Sky Crashes Down, which I managed to record a bit of (I also talk about it more in a previous post). Amanda arrived in the craziest way possible, as usual, by starting the show outside with her ukulele. She made her way inside and walked over the bar, then got crowd surfed to the stage. She was dressed like a slutty Geisha and was throwing glitter and stars into the audience. Her set consisted of her playing a lot of her solo work and even some Dresden Dolls material too. The highlight of the night for everyone was when she played New Zealand, a song she had written about our little country. Jason Webley joined her on stage later in the show and they performed together, doing some stuff from Evelyn & Evelyn. They played well past their estimated end time and would've played all night if they could. It was a brilliant and extremely audience-friendly show.

Amanda Palmer w/ Jason Webley. 23/02/2011. Kings Arms Tavern, Auckland, New Zealand.