the music, it takes him to another world

Saturday night I went to Vienna Teng's concert.

Since most of you probably don't know, or haven't noticed, she was such a formative musical influence on me that to this day every single blog post I write has a title taken from her lyrics. So the concert was kind of a big deal.

My friend Nathaniel invited me; I was the one that introduced him to her music, and it literally changed his life. We hadn't seen each other in a long time until Saturday, but we had a good time catching up!

The concert started at 9 pm (which is my bedtime) and the final encore ended at about 12:30 am. I can't remember the last time I stayed up that late, but it was worth it. I loved the show so, so much.

I actually loved it more than the last time we went to her concert four years ago, even though I was much less familiar with her new album than I am with the rest of her music.

Here's a picture of us at her last concert: Alex Wong, Nathaniel, me, Kyra, and Vienna

Alex Wong opened and I really enjoyed his songs as well. All his CDs had sold out before the end of the concert else I might have bought one.

Vienna started her portion with "Harbor." I had forgotten how much I love that song. It makes me itch to have a piano (soon!). Then she said that her next piece was secretly about a minivan. I hissed to Nathaniel, "I knew it!"

"Blue Caravan" has become one of my favorite songs over the years.

Since it was an album release tour, she mostly performed songs from her new album, Aims. I've not listened to the new album to the point of memorization (though I had minor familiarity) so listening to it live was a great experience. ("Level Up" is probably my favorite. "Landsailor" is about FedEx trucks, grocery stores, and Google bots, which ... is not clear from the lyrics.)

She also included "Eric's Song" by request, and "Antebellum" (with French horn instead of strings, because Jordan her backup is a great musician). I was really glad she finished up with "Grandmother Song" because I always regretted not shouting out more during her last performance. It is fun to yell "Tell it, sister!"

For encore Vienna shuffled her cue-cards enough to be able to perform "Kansas," probably Vienna's saddest song. She also had Jordan and Alex sing "Spanish Boots with Spanish Leather" and they finished up with Vienna's signature encore piece. (I'll put a video.)

Her music uplifts me and expands the world around me, which I think is the point. And it was such a pleasure to hang out with such fun people for a few hours (they had driven through the night to get there so they were kind of 'punchy').

Now some videos!

Here's a video of me and the rest of the crowd at the concert. It's the only evidence I have that I was there. Besides the CD I bought and had Vienna sign (but that is a secret present for Kyra that I'll be giving her when her flight gets here, hope she doesn't get internet on the plane). If you're looking for me, pause the video at 0:08 and I'm right in the middle of the shot.

Here's how they performed "Copenhagen" (I liked the one at our show better but I think I'm just biased):

And here is her encore piece. Fun fact: I saw this video a few months ago so I sort of knew what I would be getting, but since it was the last show, Vienna invited Jordan and Alex to join her, so it's not exactly like this, but this is still fabulous:

After the concert I spent the entire time I spoke with her talking about my sister. I didn't even tell her "great show" or anything. But it was a great show.

Maybe I'll catch her again in four years.