Badly Drawn Boy is not bad at all

(photos: that enormous building on the left is the Victoria House in Holburn. All the ticket said was "Victoria House." I was very confused, and walked around the entire place before finding the small door in the corner that says "Bloomsbury Ballroom". This is where the concert took place, though this is a photo i took two days later whilst on a class trip)

I did the ultimate unacceptable thing for a college student on Monday evening: I went to a concert alone.

I can hear your gasps of horror and your heads hitting the floor as you faint. Right, once you've come to, i will continue.

I don't understand why people see this as a big deal. There was a musician i really wanted to see, so i went. I asked about 15 people back when i ordered the ticket and i got a lot of " oh...um...maybe...yeah...um...how much...maybe" So they never answered me and i bought one ticket, figuring if i found someone who wanted to go later on, they could buy their own and we could go together ( it was general admission). Well a week before the show when i started talking about it a lot, i found about 10 new people who decided they wanted to go, however it was sold out.

This is how i wound up going to see Badly Drawn Boy alone. If you don't know who he is, i understand, many people don't. He is fantastic. He did the entire soundtrack for the Hugh Grant movie "About A Boy", if you had seen that. The guys real name is Damon Gough and he has a beard, long hair and always wears a woolen cap.

To make a long story short, i did not get there very early, but due to people going straight for the bar, i managed to get up in the "front row." Doors were supposed to open at 7, but due to "sound problems" they did not open til 8. It was actually quite interesting because when i came back around 7:30, i could hear him warming up through the walls of the building. I knew it was supposed to be a small venue, but i was still surprised when i walked in the tiny room. There were only 400 people at the sold out concert; and there were no barriers, i actually was leaning on the stage. I felt a little bad since i am tall, but we tall people are persecuted enough. Plane seats? Theatre seats? What's that all about? So i decided it was ok for me to stay in the front. That and the fact that there were two other people well over six feet in the front made me feel a bit better. I am glad i did stay, for although i probably secondhand-smoked the pack of cigarettes that he breezed through while playing...still not sure how he did that... that takes talent. He did almost burn his keyboard once, and a stagehand had to come move the cigarette sitting on it to the ashtray it had fallen out of.

I am pretty upset with myself because i came so close to getting his harmonica holder (the bob dylan- esque wiry thing that you put around your neck in order to play the harmonica while you play the guitar and sing). He took it off after one song and just held it out in the middle of me and these two other people. I had no idea what he was doing. Surely he was not giving it away? Those things must be fairly expensive, especially when you leave the harmonica in it. But due to my confusion, i did not make a go at it, and so this 40 year old lady got it. He did sing to me and kiss my hand later on, but still, i wanted the harmonica holder. Those things are just awesome. Not that i wasn't excited.

Anyway, fantastic fantastic concert. One i would have missed out on if i followed any sort of social norms. Good thing i am stacey molski and have little concept of what is the acceptable thing for 20 year olds to do. I have friends, i know that, why do i need to prove that to other people by making someone join me everywhere? I think more people should do this. This is my preaching for the week. Go be merry, and be alone. Sometimes. Just do what you want to do. And no, parents, i did not die. My mother thought i was going to die, going alone, but you see, i am very tall. I wear a big long black coat. People tend not to bother me.

Now go listen to Badly Drawn Boy.