..And Concert Dressed (Part III)

(The poll is still open)

I hope y'all have someplace really dressy to go tonight and you pull out that sparkly gown you thought you'd never wear and get out.

Back on topic....

The Birchmere is general admission but not stadium seating ~ it has tables and they have a full menu.  Doors open at 5, there's an outer room where you can go to the bar or just sit.  Music hall doors open at 6 for dinner, and the show starts at 7:30.  The tables generally seat 12.  We were right in front of the central mike, at a table with two male/female couples and another couple of women.  The man who took our tickets said "do you ladies want your hands stamped?" which we did.  I wasn't sure if the restrooms were inside the stage area or in the bar area (it turns out the answer is "both").


The table was, starting at the stage: man 1, Charity, Meg, empty, empty, woman 2a.  Across from woman 2a (and heading back to the stage) was woman  2b, empty, woman 3, man 3, empty, woman 1.  The 1s, 2a and 2b, and 3s were together.

I don't hear well over background noise; Charity spoke with the woman who was diagonally across to her left a couple of times, and with her husband who sat at Charity's left.  He offered us some of his onion strings; we declined.  During intermission, I stepped out of my comfort zone again and when I saw the woman looking in our general direction started a conversation.

I need to work on my voice.  It starts sorta almost acceptable but as I talk it gets worse.  I wasn't that worried about it.  No-one I spoke to or sat near commented, cared, changed tables, shunned us, flirted, or in any way seemed to have an opinion about the woman in the purple dress.

We were overdressed (Charity wore a wonderful red dress; the picture is before we left for the show) but there were a couple of very dressy dresses and a guy or two in a suit.

Dinner wasn't horribly expensive for a you-must-eat-our-food kind of place, which is nice.  And the food was quite good.  I had a barbecued brisket, Charity had a vegetarian pizza and we were both full and happy with our choices.  Oh... when they were serving the food, the server was looking for "who ordered the ribs."  I thought I heard the man across and to my right order them, so I asked if he ordered them, to give him a chance to grab them before they went back to the kitchen.  He did, and I looked at the plate and said to him "I wish I had, too."  He smiled, but we didn't converse other than that.

I also kidded with the waitress a bit when I was paying.  I often do that when in drab, but not normally when dressed.

After the show, I bought two Uncle Bonsai CDs and I spoke to the members of the band a bit and had them sign the CDs ~ most of the audience came for Christine Lavin and many (like the woman at our table) knew nothing about Uncle Bonsai.  I wanted them to know that someone knew their music and enjoyed it for a long time.  They played a "Doug" song during their set and I told them I first heard them when they played "Doug At His Mom's" and they said it would be part of a five-part "Doug" series.  Now there are twenty-three.

Two things I didn't do when I spoke with them.

One, I thought about telling the woman in the group with the silver velvety skirt and sparkly tights (Arni) that I loved her outfit.  I forgot.

Two, well, I didn't think of this until the next day.  After talking to the male member of the trio (Andrew), I shook his hand (daintily, I hope) and said "keep writing!"  I wish I'd said "your music made me the man I am today!"

Maybe I should keep track of their new, upcoming songs.  Maybe one will include Meg. :)

---