(An excerpt from what I wrote to Heather about going to see David Duchovny’s Hell or Highwater concert at the Aladdin in Portland.)

It was a beautiful blue sky/puffy cloud sunny day (I know, what the heck?) and so I was just in an awesome mood. I wore my Mulder t-shirt to work. Dave had a performance that night so I was taking my friend, Michele, who I finally talked into watching XF this year and she liked it, so she came along without even hearing any of his songs just because she liked him. She goes to a lot of concerts, and she happened to know that the concert venue, which is an old theater, has a little pub attached, and if you go to the pub before the show for dinner, you get in a short line to get in. So we did that, I left work at 4, picked her up, drove over to Portland, and got there just after 5, had a nice dinner, got our wristbands, and we got in the short line, and we were like behind six other people to get in first!! Brilliant! Usually I am in the long line, wondering how the special people got in the short line, but this time I was the one in the short line – ha ha ha!

We started chatting with the ladies behind us in line, and they were there for their friend’s birthday ‘girls night out’, and their friend had gotten the $120 ticket to go in early and watch the sound check and get to meet him. Pretty soon she comes out and she’s just bouncing up and down happy. “He hugged me!!!!” So everyone was like “OMG, what was he like?!” and she was just bubbling over “He was so nice and kind, he’s so sweet!” And then I’m kicking myself for not going for the $120 ticket – lol!

Finally they open the doors and we stroll on in ahead of the crowd and I spot the perfect spot – 5 rows back, and on the outside aisle, but I can tell they are going to keep that aisle clear and all I have to do is watch over the heads of the crowd down front at the stage. Awesome seats. We considered going up and standing at the stage, but I don’t care for getting into a bump & jostle crowd, I have a thing about crowds, and I don’t think that would be fun for two hours. And we were literally about 25 ft away at our seats. I think this is the first concert I’ve been to where being short didn’t result in me listening to the music while staring at people’s backs the whole time (which is what happened at  Barenaked Ladies a few years ago – ugh).

I’m sorry for the crappy phone pics, cameras were not allowed, so I left mine home. Though getting a pic of him would have been the highlight of my photographic life 🙂 This will have to do. They had an opening act that was really good, then after a pause to setup their equipment their band came out and then he comes bouncing out and the SOLD OUT crowd goes wild! I was so stinking happy to see him, like there he is – in real life, just a couple yards away. I was smiling like an idiot, and Michele elbows me and she’s laughing and says ‘I don’t think I’ve EVER seen you so happy!’ I mean, it was HIM, right THERE!

He does a couple songs, and then he moved over to the far right where I couldn’t see him well, and took off his jacket, and I hear my friend say “Oh My God!” and I leaned over to see and said ‘What?” and she says “Look at his arms!” Yeah, his arms are actually pretty magnificent.

He rolled through some songs from his album, and some songs that will be on the next album, and threw in a couple covers, one was a David Bowie song. He said some nice things about how this is a tough time for everyone but maybe it’s good because people will learn who they are and what they really stand for. He played around with the audience by reaching down and touching the folks down front, pretending like he was going to crowd surf off the stage, and at one point hopped down into the crowd and worked his way back to the seats and climbed up on the seats and then worked his way back up on stage. He was trying to get everyone up dancing, and our section was sitting down, and he points right at us and says ‘you guys sitting down, dance in your chairs, whatever makes you happy’ – he was just totally engaging with the whole crowd!

After an hour or so they pretend they’re done and all run off stage, the crowd goes wild screaming for an encore. After a short break they come back out and by now everyone is up on their feet, and he does his big song, which is Hell or Highwater, and maybe another one, I don’t recall. Then they are done, say goodnight, and head off. Everyone cheers for a while, and then the lights come up and the back doors open up and it’s over, so folks start filing out, then they come out AGAIN!

He comes out and says some more nice stuff about being kind and loving each other (the whole night just felt very full of love – everyone in the audience was a huge fan, everyone was totally mellow and being nice to each other, he was talking about loving each other, and brotherly love and stuff like that), and him (and the rest of the band) puts on pussy hats (you know those pink hats all the protesters have been wearing) and they do an awesome cover of The Weight (Take a Load off Fanny), and everyone is singing along – it was magical! It was just the greatest thing ever!

Then at one point he comes down into the audience again on the far side, works his way halfway back, starts coming over our way and it looks like he’s going to loop right by us, but then gets blocked up and changes direction about ten feet away – I almost died with excitement for a second there! But I was too happy with the whole experience to be disappointed 🙂

I was so happy, I was still happy all day Saturday 🙂 It took that long for the endorphins to wear off. It was the best concert experience I’ve ever had. Better than I possibly hoped for. It was just ridiculously awesome! Love love love love.

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