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March 27, 2003 // 7:48 a.m. // Cancelled shows aren't so bad
I suppose you could classify last night's concert experience as a distaster turned success. The show was scheduled to start quite late to begin with. 9:30 to be exact. I left my house late, and after walking two blocks due to the lack of parking spaces, I arrived at the venue to catch the end of the monologue that was being delivered to the people who had arrived just before me. The band had cancelled due to the terrible Denver weather. To help "ease the pain" they gave me tickets to see a band that I'm not familiar with, but who has a full page article about them in our local City Weekly. They also desperately tried to tell us that just because the band was snowed in, doesn't mean that the fun had to end. The opening band was still there, but they weren't going on until ten. They really did there best to hype them, and I decided to give them a shot. It was now nine. They told me to come back in an hour, and that I'd be able to get a refund if I took my ticket back to where I bought it. I decided that since I had my camera, I'd kill some time taking pictures of downtown Salt Lake at night. As I quickly passed the courthouse with camera in hand, a man inside dressed like a security officer rushed out and stopped me. "Is that a digital camera?" "No. It's 35 mm." "What have you taken pictures of so far?" "The Club Splash sign, the Wells Fargo Building-" "Because you aren't allowed to take pictures of the courthouse. It's a federal building." "I haven't." "Alright then." Not more than ten seconds and maybe twenty feet later as I turned the corner was I confronted by yet another guard. It was so soon after the previous conversation, that the guy hadn't even made it back into the building. (leans in toward me for a very very long time)"What are you taking pictures of?" "So far, of the Club Splash sign, the Wells Fargo building...I just had this conversation with him" (pointing to the other guard) "Ok. Just as long as you weren't taking pictures of the building." "I wasn't." And I was on my way. Am I crazy to think that this was unusual? I mean I had no desire to take pictures of this courthouse, but I can't take pictures of it because it's a federal building? It's not even isolated or hidden or patrolled by armed guards. It's right on the street. People lean, sit and talk on their cell phones against it. I guess that's all good as long as no photos are snapped. Long story short, I headed to the venue a few minutes before ten, left not long after the show started to get my camera, and really enjoyed the music of Mary Lee's Corvette. There are a lot of artists I could compare her to from Suzanna Hoffs and Juliana Hatfield to Jewel and Mary Lou Lord. She's quite talented, and upon the conclusion of her set, told the crowd of maybe eight people (see what happens when the headliner cancels?) that albums could be purchased at the door. As they were packing up their gear themselves (gotta love these small venues and small bands) I rushed outside as they were minutes from leaving to inquire about buying albums. I chatted for a while with the drummer, who I must say was extremely cool as I waited for ten minutes in the cold for Mary to come out. We talked about life in Salt Lake (because everyone is so curious about our odd little mountain city) school, photography and the pictures I took at the show. He eventually went inside to ask about the price of the albums and replied to me with a slightly taken aback response of, "she wants fifteen dollars for them." I bought both albums (only to find out later that a few of the songs I liked most were on other albums) and handed the money directly to her. How often do you get to hand the money right to the artist? I told her I enjoyed the show, the drummer got my email address and gave me her website address, we shook hands as we parted, and that was that. I also have to add on a completely different tangent that the girl who sold me the ticket went to high school with me and the boy who sold me the Coke as I drove home also went to high school with me. In the last month I've run into numerous people (eight to be exact) from school I hadn't seen in months or years. Ok. I just found out that you can listen to the tracks on her website via RealPlayer. I think I need to put "1,000 Promises Later" on a constant loop.