100 dates

Late last month, littlestar and I went to the first of what was to be a string of concert dates. In a way, this date is a callback to an earlier date. Twenty-two dates prior, we went to see (and loved) Little Miss Sunshine. One of many things we both enjoyed about the movie was its soundtrack.

It makes good sense, then, that we went to a concert by the people behind the core of that soundtrack, Devotchka. When I found the Devotchka concert was coming, and asked littlestar if she had any interest, she wasn't sure. So we looked at pictures from their prior concerts and saw people hanging from the ceiling upside-down. littlestar said, "We're going," and that was that.

The concert was at The Fillmore, which is rapidly becoming one of our favorite venues both for the atmosphere and for their ability to eschew the bass and actually mix sounds well. The Fillmore is right by the Japan Center, so we popped into Isobune for sushi, then into the Kinokuniya for art book temptation (to which littlestar readily succumbed -- in her defense, they were offering Okami).

After that, we went to the Fillmore, where littlestar waited while I went and de-knifed myself (oops) before they would let us in. We picked up a drink for littlestar inside, then went to grab some floor space and wait for the show.

The opening act was Basia Bulat and friends. Basia is charming, has a great voice and quite a bit of musical talent, and was a really pleasing start to the music of the evening. One thing to love about good concerts is getting introduced to good opening acts. Our policy of "get there when the doors open and go stand in front" has generally kept working out for us, and getting to hear the full opening act is a big part of that.

After Basia, we were on to the main fare. We weren't sure exactly what to expect from Devotchka's music in person, as they feel kind of energetic yet moody on the Little Miss Sunshine soundtrack -- and that's all we'd heard of them. In person, they were really energetic. They were also professional -- when the hookup for the violinist's instrument failed, he wandered over, hijacked a microphone, tucked it in next to his strings, and kept going.

The show opened with two young women tossing out flowers over the audience, and they returned in the mid-show to do the dangling acrobats act we'd seen in the pictures. It does seem like we keep going to shows with eccentric side acts.

We both liked the show a lot, and left with a pair of little white flowers in hand -- they stayed in a little vase on littlestar's table for a week afterward.