This is the easiest kind of Wise Madness entry to write; last night I went to see Anaïs Mitchell at Rockwood Music Hall. If I can’t write about a friend, I just put on my list of great songwriters, performing at my home away from home, with friends in the audience, I should quit blogging. The only thing that would make it easier would be if there were bacon, peanut butter, and chocolate involved. The question is why didn’t I bring bacon, peanut and chocolate? I need to plan better.
How do I love Anaïs? Let me count the ways. Nah, that’s plagiarizing Browning. Instead I’ll plagiarize John Carson and Ed McMahan. I love Anaïs so much that I bought tickets in advance for the show. I never buy tickets in advance. I always hope to do the merch and get comped. Anaïs is someone I’ve merched for before. It was a clear possibility, but not a guarantee, and I needed a guarantee. I could not risk missing the show. Good bet too, she didn’t sell merch. I wisely didn’t wait; many friends did and were shut out; the show sold out fast.
The next order of business was getting a good seat. Rockwood 2 holds 120 people, mostly standing room, but some tables. Fred and I are a bit particular, we don’t want two of the best seats, we want two specific seats, the theater chairs in the mezzanine overlooking the stage, otherwise known as the Statler and Waldorf Seats. You get a great view, great sound, the most comfort, and it’s the ideal place to heckle from. Not that I heckle Anaïs, … much. It was a 7:15 show which meant that doors would be at 6:45. Mine plan was to get there at 5:40. My plan failed. I left slightly later than I wanted, just missed a D train, and then the F train never came and I decided to walk from Broadway Lafayette. A line had already formed, maybe 15 people in front of me. Fortunately Fred arrived earlier and the few people in front of us wanted to sit at floor level.
The friends online were Arthur and Marty. I knew that Arthur would be there with Erika, and she is always at Anaïs shows. Anaïs is one of our bonds. They ended up sitting at the closest table to us on the mezzanine. I didn’t see Chris but he ended up in the table directly below us. I didn’t find Kevin till the show was over. Did I really have no other friends there? I’m pretty sur they could have sold twice as many tickets as the room holds and more friends were simply too late on the draw.
Are any of My Gentle Readers unaware of Anaïs? You will come April.
Anaïs was working on Hadestown when I met her. It feels like I’ve been waiting for it to hit Broadway forever. Thinking about it from Anaïs’s perspective, I met her a third of her life ago. To put it in young Anaïs’s perspective, she had to wait half of her life from the concept to its reaching Broadway, maybe more. I don’t know how much before I met her she came up with it. Why have I never asked? I’d love it if the idea came to her when she was 16, the age the genesis of the Theory of Relativity came to Einstein. That would she had to wait more than what was then her lifetime for it to come to fruition. I have heard her do the songs solo. I heard the original performance album with a cast that included Greg Brown, Ani DiFranco, and Justin Vernon. I saw the Off-Broadway production last year; it was greatly reimagined. It’s now playing in the West End in London but I have not seen that or heard a cast recording. She said that she’s now giving her phone to her husband and she’s locking herself in a room for a final rewrite for the Broadway opening. I’ve loved each revision and I’m looking forward to what’s to come. By hook or by crook I will see it on Broadway.
Last night was nothing so elaborate. It was Anaïs, her guitar, accompanied by Austin Nevins and his guitar. That was more than enough. Anaïs solo provides more content than most bands. There’s a lot to be found in her brain and she knows how to let it out. She cannot just write but sing and play guitar. There is a reason I won’t miss one of her shows.
I love that between songs there is no pretense. She is what Joy called “little folk girl.” It’s in quotes so don’t get on me for not saying woman. I had to think about that. But part of Anaïs’s charm is that she will always come across as a wide-eyed child. If she were a man I’d say she had boyish charm, but girlish has different connotations. Sexism makes life difficult. Can everyone drop all their prejudices so I would not have to worry about how people might misconstrue what I’m saying? I have a feeling that if people won’t do it out of rightness, they won’t do it as a favor for me.
She did songs from across her career, not primarily Hadestown. She performed what she called “deep cuts” including one from the Country EP she did with Rachel Ries, no performing as Her Crooked Heart. That’s how I first became aware of Rachel, who is a brilliant singer/songwriter in her own right.
After the show I talked to Chris and Kevin and then ran into Anaïs on the way to the bathroom. I talked to Erika and Arthur before the show. I’ll bee seeing them again on Pearl Harbor Day. It has nothing to do with Pearl Harbor, it’s the Woody’s Children 50th Anniversary show. Hey you should go to that too, it’s at Symphony Space, here’s the link for information and to buy tickets.
I didn’t eat before the show, who knows where I ate afterward. I ate by myself, that’s changes the answer. My regular place for after Rockwood solo dining is Rosario’s Pizza at the end the block, the corner of Orchard and Stanton. I didn’t get peanut butter, chocolate, or bacon in there but I got pizza. I’ll call that a win.
I’ll call the entire day a win; a top tier musician, friends, and my favorite pizza.
Wise Madness 