And so after just over twenty-one years, I got to go to another concert with Steph.
I'd managed to forget, or not really process, that the concert wasn't just "Dessa" but "Dessa with the Minnesota Orchestra." So: full orchestra, Dessa, a rotating cast of five or six additional backing vocalists, and another rapper who I assume is also from Doomtree, the hip-hop collective she's a part of. I have no idea how long the show was, must have been at least two hours. Orchestral arrangements ranging from "decent" to "mindblowingly good." And Dessa of course gives a fantastic show.
She didn't play the songs I'd most hoped to hear (for future reference: "Matches to Paper Dolls," "Dutch" which I will likely never hear live because it treads the same lyrical/thematic ground as the objectively superior "5 Out of 6,", and "Life on Land" which has been stuck in my head off and on for coming on a month now). But she did her big hits, ending the first half with "5 Out of 6" and at the close of the night playing "Fire Drills" as the encore. And on "The Chaconne" the concertmaster played the Bach Chaconne, which is arguably how the song should have been conceived to start with.
(The "song without verbs" was Talking Business. I'd noted it as being extremely impressionistic, kind of like a movie in still photographs. I hadn't realised that that was a result of "no verbs," though that makes sense.)
Big energy, fun patter, a crowd that's happy to be there. I had a really good time. I've not really had a night Out in awhile. I didn't really get dressed up any fancier than usual but it still felt good. Would concert again. (Good thing, since I've already got a ticket for the Seattle show at the beginning of October.)
And after that I blipped up north for a quick low-key date with Erin, and that was good as well. We talked a decent bit, which we're starting to get back in the habit of doing, and it feels ... a bit safer than it has in the past? Like we're actually connecting? Like I'm able to actually connect instead of being desperately terrified, I guess.
August has been an alright month so far. It's nice.
I'd managed to forget, or not really process, that the concert wasn't just "Dessa" but "Dessa with the Minnesota Orchestra." So: full orchestra, Dessa, a rotating cast of five or six additional backing vocalists, and another rapper who I assume is also from Doomtree, the hip-hop collective she's a part of. I have no idea how long the show was, must have been at least two hours. Orchestral arrangements ranging from "decent" to "mindblowingly good." And Dessa of course gives a fantastic show.
She didn't play the songs I'd most hoped to hear (for future reference: "Matches to Paper Dolls," "Dutch" which I will likely never hear live because it treads the same lyrical/thematic ground as the objectively superior "5 Out of 6,", and "Life on Land" which has been stuck in my head off and on for coming on a month now). But she did her big hits, ending the first half with "5 Out of 6" and at the close of the night playing "Fire Drills" as the encore. And on "The Chaconne" the concertmaster played the Bach Chaconne, which is arguably how the song should have been conceived to start with.
(The "song without verbs" was Talking Business. I'd noted it as being extremely impressionistic, kind of like a movie in still photographs. I hadn't realised that that was a result of "no verbs," though that makes sense.)
Big energy, fun patter, a crowd that's happy to be there. I had a really good time. I've not really had a night Out in awhile. I didn't really get dressed up any fancier than usual but it still felt good. Would concert again. (Good thing, since I've already got a ticket for the Seattle show at the beginning of October.)
And after that I blipped up north for a quick low-key date with Erin, and that was good as well. We talked a decent bit, which we're starting to get back in the habit of doing, and it feels ... a bit safer than it has in the past? Like we're actually connecting? Like I'm able to actually connect instead of being desperately terrified, I guess.
August has been an alright month so far. It's nice.