October 20, 2009

• This past night, I went to Los Angeles to see Marie Digby, on her first night of residency at “The Hotel Cafe.” I’ve never been to that venue before, and being that this is LA we’re talking about, I have to first put up dealing with parking. Figuring out where to park in a place I’ve never been to in Los Angeles, is in itself an adventure. I got to consider the price, if it’s valet, and if it’s a safe place to not worry about my car. So when the GPS tells me that I’m “arriving at destination” and I go “but wait, where is it?” then I knew that this was going to take a little bit of time. Luckily I still had 45 minutes until the show starts, so I had time to roam around a bit (the cops were in full force on that street too).

  After I finally settled on a parking lot I walked towards the general location of where The Hotel Cafe was suppose to be, and it helped that I had the address listed on my phone. The place was definitely not that obvious for a newbie, and I didn’t know that it had some parking next door as well (next time I’ll just use that). I checked in, got my wrist band, and waited in line to get in. Being that I was alone, I made some small talk with the people next to me in line, but I kept to myself for the most part (glued my face to the blackberry). The majority of the people there to see Marie were mostly twenty something college kids it seems, but there were a few older people as well. Once we got in a little after 9PM, the first thing I noticed was that this venue is not that big (intimate), and is pretty much dark with mood lighting. The lighting might be a problem for my camera, so don’t expect perfect quality on the videos / photos.

  

  Marie Digby got on stage by around 9:30PM, and had two other guys helping out on guitar and keyboard. She herself either sang her songs with just a mic, an acoustic guitar, or was on the piano. Marie is simply very talented. Since this is her first day officially promoting her latest album (“Breathing Underwater“) in her home town of Los Angeles, the majority of the songs she played were from that. This night was also the first time she ever played “Love With A Stranger” for an audience (the song is also found in Breathing Underwater). She also played her most famous cover of Rihanna’s “Umbrella,” and by the urging of someone in the audience she also did a short acapella cover of Beyonce’s “Sweet Dreams.” Nice.

  While on stage, Marie continues to be very personable, and the audience clearly appreciates it. She cracks jokes, talks to the crowd, self-deprecating, loves to tell stories, and at one point she even offered a drink to a guy in the audience who guessed a song title correctly. Marie did almost trip and fall on stage as well when she was walking towards the piano, and she commented how these things seem to always happen to her, which reminded me about how she almost dropped her guitar at the Americana At Brand show just a little over two weeks ago. Silly Marie.

  I kinda wished she had a longer set list, as it was just about an hours worth, and it went by quick. I did get all her songs on video, as I had to take advantage of the fact that I was in a pretty good location in the crowd. After she went off stage, I proceeded to wait in line for the meet & greet. I did not have anything for her to sign though, so I suggested she just signed the wrist band I was wearing. We ended up chatting a little bit about her pets, and I asked whether her dog “Misty” is getting along with her new cat “Nausicaa” (I was all “like the anime?” – how cool is she?). Nausicaa likes Misty, but the feeling isn’t mutual right now, although her dog isn’t vicious towards the cat at least. I showed her a photo of my dogs, and she thought they looked adorable. Took a photo with her to commemorate the night, we hugged (aawww), and I told her that I’ll see her again next week. I also stuck around a little bit to help take pictures for three other people in line.

  Before I left, I met three people from “Digbyholics.com,” so here’s a shout out to Ken, Ulysses, and Vince. Gotta give a shout out to Crystal as well, who was excited to have met Marie for the first time (wasn’t she just too cool?). Once I departed, I realized that the Digbyholics crew was still waiting around, and I was thinking that I should probably have stuck around as well. I most likely could have talked to Marie once again. I already said my good-byes though, so maybe next time. I find out later when I got home that the Digbyholics were doing a liveblog thing for the site.

  Marie Digby, you are too awesome. I’m already looking forward to seeing you once again, very soon. Like next Monday soon (10/26) and the following Monday soon (11/02 – show will be filmed for a movie she is making too).

  * click here for the PHOTOS I took *

  * click here for the VIDEOS I took *

  

  • 5:59 am
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