Dar concert

It was lovely (not surprisingly)! She did 26 (!) songs, I think (one of the other people at the table was taking notes) and included a great deal of typical Dar chatty commentary in between. Some were from 'My Better Self', her newest album (including 'Teen for God', which she started off on and then lost her way in the closing stanza and had to replay several lines :-). But quite a few were older favourites. Two I always cry at: 'The Christians and the Pagans' (I'm not sure why I react to it so, but it's a happy kind of sad) and 'Iowa' (which was always a song Nora and I identified as 'ours' and which makes me think of her and miss her and us). Dar played a couple I haven't heard her play before live ('Calling the Moon'), and she explained several that I hadn't fully understood before ('The Ocean' and 'I Had No Right'). And there were old friends ('The Beauty of the Rain', 'The Mercy of the Fallen', 'The One Who Knows', 'February') and the inevitable 'we won't let you leave until you play...' The Babysitter's Here. :-) The other people at the table (a young couple I got to talk to for a bit and another couple I didn't have a chance to talk to much) were very impressed by the opening musician, a woman named Caroline Herring; I wasn't quite so impressed, though some of what she did was very god.

Very good music, good food (though the delicious red beans and rice were a little too spicy for my insides...), and nice to see Del Ray again after a long absence.