Magnetic Fields

How was the Magnetic Fields show last night? It was fantastic. Amazing. Stephin Merritt and Claudia Gonson are quite the witty crew. And the band as a whole was just top notch. I wish I could put into words what a great show and what a great night it was last night. I could talk about the performance, the brilliance and wit of Merritt's writing, the comfort and ease of the entire show, how, in my excitement, I started an audience clap when Claudia began to sing "Reno Dakota". I could go over all sorts of minutiae that made the concert great. I could have sat through another four sets (Lord knows Merritt has the material to cover four more sets).

But it wouldn't cover the experience. It wouldn't adequately describe how much fun the show was. Ultimately it was the intangibles that made it so great. The magic of the music, the receptive audience, the relaxed feel of the musicians, the fact that it was just four people with a handful of handplayed instruments . . . Just fantastic. Songs I previously was indifferent to I now love because, after seeing them live, I feel I've seen their heart.

But, I may not be the best judge. I mean, to be fair, we were continuing the trend of going out kidless for the first time in a long time. It was nice to have a date with my wife. I kind of like her a little bit. Though I was too nervous to give her a kiss goodnight. So I may be skewed in the direction of the positive.

However, I learned a new (Gothic Archies) song I hadn't heard before. It's called "Smile: No One Cares How You Feel" and it's become my new theme song. I found the album it's from (a label sampler) and it will be delivered shortly.

The song goes a little something like this:

Smile: no one cares how you feel.
Be vicious, vain, and vile.
Everything's yours to steal if you just smile.

Have you no dignity?
Have you no sense of style?
You'll never be pretty until you smile.
Smile: no one cares how you feel.

There's a world to be got.
You can make this world kneel if you'll just smile.
Always the best disguise, a license to defile.
Everyone you despise will die, so smile.

Heh. That's one of the things that made the show so great, and gave me a new appreciation for some of the songs, is Merritt's acerbic wit. Live, his turns of the phrase were more apparent and sometimes given a bit more of a bite. Nice.