December 15:
This day there was dancing!
(But of course you knew that!)
The Boreal concert was so, so, so, so AMAZING!
Remember how I said I expected the audience would be packed in tightly and there might not be room to dance? Well...
I arrived at the venue for 6:50 PM. Doors were to open at 7:00 PM. For a 7:30 PM concert start. This was a concert hosted by an organization called "The Cuckoo's Nest Folk Club". It is a long-standing not-for-profit org in London (established in 1973, I believe). So they have a decent mailing list of loyal supporters. Most of whom are senior citizens.
The band,
Boreal, is comprised of three singer-songwriters who are amazingly talented, individually and together. They have a mailing list of loyal supporters too. (You may have heard me mention them a time or two over the years.
) But they are indie musicians. They do not have the cultural/publicity clout of Taylor Swift. And most of their fans are older than me. They're not typically the sort of people who will camp out outside a venue hours in advance in the hope of getting good seats. When I show up to a Boreal concert ten minutes before the doors to the venue even open, I am typically guaranteed front-row-centre seats.
But not this night.
Nope. When I arrived at the venue there were at least ten people in line ahead of me, waiting outside in the cold and almost-freezing rain. One of them was leaning on a walker.
And none of those people got front-row-centre seats. Because Cuckoo's Nest shows take place in a pub which is attached to a restaurant. And people who eat dinner in the restaurant first get to claim their seats in the pub before us poor people who cannot afford restaurant meals even get to enter the venue.
By the time I got inside the venue the only front row seats left were wrapped so far around the side of the performance area, sitting in them would have put me behind Angie's back. (Angie being the band member who performs stage left.) Also: you will note I wrote "performance area", not "stage". The performance area was on the same level as the audience seating and was separated from the audience only by the performers' monitors and the mess of cables for the sound system. Seeing as how the monitors and most of the cables were in front of the musicians, not wrapped around the sides of them like the audience was, the only front-row seats still available were close enough to Angie's stage spot, she could almost have played her keyboard while sitting in one of them. Almost.
Naturally, these were the seats which I chose.
But as the venue started to fill up, it became clear there were not going to be enough seats for everyone. The concert was oversold. (In a "please nobody tell the fire marshall" kind of way.) One of the concert volunteers was bringing extra chairs in from an upstairs room. But there were still not enough seats for everyone. And there wasn't enough space left in the room to add any more chairs.
So I told the concert organizer I would give up my seat if he found me a corner somewhere in which I could dance.
He replied, "Are you Laura Rainbow Dragon?"
This was the first concert I have attended since being back in London. And already I have a reputation!
(In fairness it could have been the hair. And the fact that my name was on the band's guest list.)
Anyhow... I ended up standing at the back of the room, in front of the bar. A position which translated to "fourth row, centre". Except the 4th row contained no seats. It was all standing room only. And I was not the only person standing in it.
So I danced for the entire first set. But my "dance floor" was teeny tiny. And I had to be mindful to stay within it because--unlike in other venues I have been in where I managed to eke out a tiny dance floor surrounded by walls or stairs or the exit to the kitchen which I needed to vacate whenever wait staff needed to walk past--this was a teeny tiny dance floor surrounded by people. Even so: it was completely and utterly wonderful!
But hot. Oh so hot. And I had just coloured my hair the day before. I was afraid I would end up with rainbow rivulets of sweat running down my face! Also: the person standing on one side of me was clearly someone who requires more personal space than the venue was able to provide to her. And she was super uncomfortable about the fact that the person closest to her was moving as much as I was. So at intermission I moved to the opposite side of the hall. Which was by the exit and also where the concert organizer and his volunteer were sitting behind the CD table. The concert organizer told me I could prop open the door to the vestibule if I wanted and dance in there. So I did!
Dancing in the vestibule was even more awesome because a.) it was several degrees cooler in there and b.) although the space was still tiny, I was now surrounded not by people but by walls and food bank donations. So I could let loose without freaking anybody out. I even broke out my dance scarf for the second set!
Everything was so wonderful! The performance. My ability to dance. The energy in the room. It felt like being enveloped in a giant group hug!
(It's been almost 48 hours now, and I still feel like I am being hugged!)
I was definitely one of the youngest people in the room. And London audiences--of any age really, but definitely the older crowd--can be kind of stiff. But not this crowd! They were singing along. Clapping. Waving arms.
There's been many a time I have worked a crowd to get a standing ovation for the performers at the end of the night. The main reason I try to take a seat front-row-centre, even when I know I'm not going to be sitting in it, is because if I stand in front of that seat at the end of the performance and clap enthusiastically with my hands above my head, everyone else in the audience can see me. And it gives them permission to stand up too. But this audience did not need my help. I honestly do not think I have ever seen an audience on its feet faster than this crowd was! It was something else!
So, of course, we got our encore. Without the band ever having left the "stage". (It was impossible for them to leave their spots, with everyone in the audience on their feet!)
Alas, the concert was eventually over for real. At which point I was stuck in the back corner of the room, by the CD table, the concert organizer (who most people in the house knew--he has been organizing these shows for decades) and the door. There was no way I was getting back to my coat--which had been shoved onto the table with the sound board, at the far side of the room, when I'd given up my seat--before most of the audience had left the building. Which was fine by me. I never leave without first thanking and saying goodbye to the band anyway. And being stuck in the corner by the door meant I got to meet a lot of people as they were leaving. Lots of people told me they love my hair. (I first started colouring my hair because I thought it would be fun for me. But I soon learned that bright rainbow-coloured hair makes a lot of people happy.) Lots of people told me they appreciated my dancing. (One woman had wanted to come and join me when she saw me dancing in the vestibule. But the audience was packed in so tightly, there was no way she could get to me from where she was sitting. "But I was with you in spirit!" she said.) A met a woman who had just celebrated her 95th birthday. And I met a guy who was actually younger than me.
Eventually the room had cleared enough I was able to fetch my coat and bag, and give my goodbye hugs to Katherine and Tannis and Angie. And then I headed for home and took Shelby out for her walk.
Mileage:
running:
hiking: 13 km
Writing:
finished my short story for the week
new fiction words: 3014 (includes all my words for this week, but not the handwritten stuff from a previous week I still have not typed up)
fiction YTD: 155,809 + ? (still have some hand-written stuff to type up)
story-a-week challenge: 48 of 52 completed
54 stories in my 54th year challenge: 48 of 54 completed (I really need to get a move on here!)
writing days this week: 4/5
French:
CBC Gem
Scheduling Habits:
GOBOT:
SOOT:
GBOT:
GR:
Cumulative Habit Scores:
Gaming Rules: 51
SOOT: 40*
GBOT: 40*
I've made the executive decision not to deduct points for being late with SOOT and GBOT this night. (Even though: yes, I had known for weeks I would be attending a concert on this date.) Boreal nights are special. Normal rules do not apply.
Streaks:
Consecutive days of working out: 98
Consecutive days of French study: 1490