August 6, 2007
Three Nights with Rufus
SP came up on Thursday last week for an extended stay in the city. We went to Rufus' concert three nights in a row. It was fabulous, divine, intimate. At the end of the three nights, I felt like I knew Rufus and his band, and it was sad to see them go off on the rest of their tour. OK, maybe not intimate.
Thursday night, we drove up to Santa Rosa to the Luther Vandross/Burbank/Wells Fargo/something or other pavilion concert hall for the first concert. We got to Santa Rosa—grâce à la circulation folle—around 7:30 p.m. I figured it would take longer than Google Maps led me to believe, and two hours seemed right. I was starving, so we stopped at a little taqueria and had a little something. We got to the venue just as Sean Lennon and his band were coming on stage. We missed A Fine Frenzy, the first opening act. Sean's group surprised me. I hadn't heard any of his music before, and it was very nice. And then Rufus came on and blew us all away. I was surprised at the diversity of the audience. I had seen Rufus in concert before, and his crowd is almost a little predictable: gay men, lesbians, a few straight couples here and there. This crowd was old and young, gay and straight, democrat and republican, and they all seemed to love him. The concert ended around midnight, and we drove back to the city. Going home only took about 45 minutes.
Friday night, after a "team building" event with my new coworkers at Harvey's, SP and I caught a cab to the Masonic Hall to see Rufus again. We got there early enough to see all three acts, and A Fine Frenzy was cute, and the music was good. I ended up buying their CD for $10 at Virgin. She's an adorable redhead who thanked her uncle and grandparents for being in the audience that night. Cute! Then Sean again, then Rufus in what was the best of the three nights. It almost seemed like he gave more than his all for the crowd in San Francisco. And why shouldn't he? Tee hee.
During the intermission, SP and I were up walking around, and we passed Joe, the Barber and his cute boyfriend. I was far too nervous to potentially meet the star blogger, so I played ignorant and stared at the passing public instead. There's so much that I would love to say to him, but I know it would come out as pandering or illiterate. I know it was rude, but honestly, a panic attack at a Rufus concert would simply not do, and I had no special pills to help me out. Besides, they were both chatting with other people, and I didn't want to be disrespectful and interrupt them.
I think my favorite part of that evening was the very first song (and, in my humble opinion, one of his best to date), "Release the Stars." When he sang the words "release the stars," they turned on the disco ball and little white "stars" glittered across the hall. It was magical. I giggled with glee. I loved it. Of course his encore was brilliant, and damn he has nice legs! We had seats in the fifth row, but it was so close we might as well have been in the front row.
Saturday afternoon, we stopped by Amoeba in the Haight to see a live performance by The Swell Season, the duo from the movie Once. I haven't seen the movie yet, and I would recommend it if only for the music. They were really cool, down-to-earth musicians, and the place was packed. We're going to see The Frames in September. After that, we drove down to the Mountain Winery in Saratoga. I had never been to this venue before, and I was surprised at how small it was. Again, we missed A Fine Frenzy (or did we?) and only caught Sean's set and Rufus' set.
I am not sure about this, but apparently the Mountain Winery limits performers on time because Rufus' concert was truncated noticeably. There was no intermission, he didn't don his lederhosen, and for a minute, I feared that he wouldn't be able to perform his encore either! No! At a couple of points during the concert, after being heckled by his adoring fans (on one side, a girl screamed "I love you!" and from the other side another girl screamed "I love you" and back on the one side, the first girl screamed "I hate you," presumably to the second girl—we were dying with laughter), he said "we're running out of time, so let's keep going." I didn't understand that until the encore when he was preparing for "Gay Messiah," the closing number, he was stopped and told it was too late. I had never seen that happen before. It was very sad. But it was still a fantastic show.
I don't know if I would want to go to the Mountain Winery again, though, at least if I did, I would sit in the bleachers on the sides; they had a much better view. There were two kids in front of me who were completely zoned out. They didn't clap or get into any of the music. One of them kept twirling his hair and then licking his fingers afterward. I mean, he didn't do this once or twice, and for a while, I wondered if he would ever stop twirling. It was distracting, and I felt a little pity for him because his actions almost seemed like a reaction to something, you know, like a nervous tick.
Sunday was gloomy and wet, and I was exhausted. I crawled into bed and watched the rest of my Dead Like Me DVDs. Three nights with Rufus was so worth it.
