October is Music Awareness Month

For me acutally... no one else

But I attended my first Opera at the Kennedy Center - it was fantastic! For my birthday we attended the "Welcome to Opera Night" and it was an overview of the season to come. Highlights included: tiny bottles of champagne, the fountains outside, and a ton of picture opportunities. Jason and I also met a couple who said they were JUST "co-workers" yeah my ass. I think they were there on a romantic affair - very entertaining.

On Monday night I switched gears - Cat Power played at the 9:30 Club. Opening was quite possibly the WORST band in the history of bands, Childballads. OH MY GOOD GOD, they could NOT have been worse! Everyone around us was laughing at the lead singer and his drug-induced writhing/dancing. Not only did he not sing but more like dictated to the audience and grabbed the mic in a very Fugazi-way but then instead of letting out an animal-like roar he would quietly whisper.

But finally about 10:15 Chan Marshall and her backup band, The Dirty Delta Blues burst on to the stage and rocked! The part I loved the most was many of the "fans" only knew her Greatest Album and when they covered any of the songs they made sure to change the tempo and accompanying music throwing off any singalongs. There was a small portion of clap-alongs which always make me shudder but it was quelled after the song.

If you haven't heard Cat Power I highly recommend her, as Brittany put it she is like the 2007 version of Janis Joplin, drugs included. This was my second time seeing her and it keeps getting better and better - I have heard that a few months to a year ago it was a bad show but she has found that happy balance of heroine to make her perform quite well, and as always, shoeless.