October 27, 2009

• Yesterday marked off the last day of my four days weekend. To top off my long weekend (felt short though), I got to once again see Marie Digby at The Hotel Cafe in Hollywood, CA. Since I was there last week, I had an idea how long it would take me to get there, where it was located, and where to park. Left at my desired time, and right when I was going to get on the freeway I realized, “wait, where’s my camera?” While I was sitting at the intersection, waiting for my turn to move, the thought ran through my head, “should I bother? should I go back? Do I even have time?” I took the risk, spending an additional twenty minutes to go back home for my camera, and back to where I was when I found out it was missing. Well thankfully there was absolutely no traffic to get in my way, and there was parking left. In fact, when I drove up the parking lot, I saw Marie Digby herself talking to her friends, and I believe that I also happened to have parked right next to her Mom’s car. I think she knew that I recognized who she was, as she just smiled at me when I noticed her.

  Went inside The Hotel Cafe with about 20 minutes to spare before she gets on stage. The spot that I was standing at last week was already taken, but a friend of mine who was already in there with his cousin, apparently saved me a seat at his table near the front of the stage. Basically I was right next to where I was standing last week, but this time I was sitting down. I wasn’t sure how my pictures were going to turn out though, because now I have 2-3 heads in front of me to consider, plus with my lower angle made the lighting on the stage seemed a little too bright. Oh well, I’ll make do.

  Marie Digby got on stage, thanking us for coming, and tried to get a good look at who was in the audience. Once again she opens with “Daybreak,” which instead of me getting it on video, I decided to just take photos. In fact, I consciously decided not to videos of all her songs this time around. She played two songs in her set list that I’ve never got a video for before; “Sanctuary” and “Spell,” which both sounded great. She also played what I thought was a really powerful rendition of “Feel.”

  

  What I also like about Marie, is that she is able to joke around with the audience, and there were moments that stood out. We all had a laugh with how she introduced her song “Stupid for you,” because of the emphasis on saying STOOPID, since one of the guys in the audience said it that way. There was also a moment where she described her cough as a foghorn sound and proceeded to demonstrate it to us. It did kinda sound like a foghorn. “I hope no one video’d that.” “It’s going on youtube” somebody says. “Nnooooo” She sounded so cute being embarrassed about it (don’t worry Marie, I won’t put it up. lol). I swear, she has such a good rapport with her audience, that she’s just awesome.

  When her set ended, I kinda abandoned my friend, who was sticking around in the concert hall for the next act. The next band was “Emm Gryner,” who was somebody my friend’s cousin knew. I wanted to do a meet & greet with Marie though so I proceed to the merch booth. After waiting a while, we were told to go outside to form a line, and I was lucky enough to be one of the first people in line (thanks to a new friend that I met there).

  Once it was time for me to meet Marie, I did my usual complimenting her for a great show and what not. Told her that once again she was dressed really well, as she always is, and she told me that she’s glad somebody’s noticed. *blush* Then she told me that she liked the Metallica shirt I was wearing, and actually proceeded to air guitar and sang “exit light, enter night…” In my head I was thinking “Holy Crap, Marie Digby’s doing Enter Sandman right in front of me!” So I said, “well then, as a challenge, you should do a Metallica cover.” Her eyes lit up as she couldn’t think of what she would probably play, so I suggested “Nothing Else Matters,” which she agreed could be something she could play. I then asked her where she was going to go for the movie shoot she was doing at 4 in the morning, and she told me Joshua Tree. I blurted with a “I saw U2 yesterday,” which she thought was a random thing for me to say, until she was reminded that U2 had the album called “Joshua Tree.” haha, my attempt at humor kinda failed me there. I ended it with her signing my copy of her first album “Unfold,” and then we did a “funny” photo together. I think I could have gone on and on talking to her, if it wasn’t for the fact that there ARE other people waiting to meet her too. lol, next week, I’ll get another opportunity.

  I went back in the concert hall to check out Emm Gryner, and I was pleasantly surprised to find out that she is pretty good herself. I believe I was about half way through her set, but the second half I heard sounded great. In between her songs, I did slip out on occasion to check up on Marie’s meet & greet line. I promised this couple that I was going to take their photo with her, so I was keeping an eye out for them. So in and out I went, from seeing Emm Gryner’s performance, to checking on Marie’s meet & greet. I did eventually take the photo as promised, but while I was out there, it seems like her manager was trying to get her to leave already. She is suppose to be at Joshua Tree 5-6 hours from that time, but Marie really wanted to stick around for all her fans. By the end of Emm Gryner’s set, it looks like Marie was just wrapping up the last of the meet & greeters. As for me, I went to say hi to Emm, bought an album from her, and took a picture with her. It occurred to me that all that time, I did not once take a photo or video of her performance (which I now regret not doing). I actually offered to buy her a drink, and she said water would be nice, because… she points to her tummy. She’s pregnant! Silly me, I didn’t even notice. She was wearing black, and it was kinda dark, but still…

  Once me and my friend started walking out of The Hotel Cafe, it looks like Marie Digby was also just then leaving. I got to say bye to her again and told her to have fun at the movie shoot. Got in my car, and drove home happy. What a way to end my long weekend indeed.

  * click here for the PHOTOS I took *

  * click here for the VIDEOS I took *

  

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