Patti at the Wilshire

["Kevin Dickson" <bullethead13>]

Okay, gotten home, slept, and it's time to type.

1. Good news for people needing shirts in the 2XL - they had them.
Strangely, they don't seem so much wider, as longer. Didn't advertise them,
but if you asked... and by not "advertising" them, the size wasn't scrawled
on the scrap of tape that was holding the shirts up that I could see. So
they're available. Everyone is served.

2. The show was sadly perfunctory. Relatively. I mean, if I hadn't seen
Wednesday's pure glory and triumph, I would have been very happy with last
night's show, and it was very good, but it never once soared, the way
Wednesday's show soared from start to finish. On Wednesday, it was like
Patti had jacked her sockets into some incredible universe, everything from
her voice to her inspiration to her words seemed to fly from her like
sparks, she played her electric guitar insanely, like the old days, throwing
herself around, cartwheeling around the stage, not clumsy, graceful.

Last night, I couldn't shake the feeling that she felt very self conscious -
and when I spoke with Babelista SeaChel after the show, found that she
agreed. At the start of 1959, Patti completely blew the lyric, Tony tried to
help her, and they had to stop it (I also think OR was playing it too low,
and Lenny had to sort that one out). Patti even addressed her quietness -
saying she felt like she was in a quiet mood - "maybe there was a john wayne
movie on TV while I was sleeping".
For the encore, it was two very definite songs, both very faithful to their
recorded versions. Revenge was a nice surprise (as had been 7 ways of going
earlier), but Gloria was brooding and sexy as hell, but the closest I've
ever heard to phoning it in, it was not improvised much at all, and didn't
build into anything at all, unlike the other night's marathon
rnr/gloria/raveupfreakout.
High point for me was Pissing In A River - she really gave it her all from
the start and seemed really in the moment during this song. Song ended with
her at Oliver's feet, while he actually rocked out with some sweet 70s rock
star confidence. Ahhh, good boy! Finally, some swagger.

3. The celeb count - which may in part have accounted for some of her
shyness - Rosanna Arquette, Eric Erlandson, Jackson Browne, Bijou Phillips
and Traci Lords, all in the two rows around me.

4. The guy selling cds at the booth was from an indie music store in Long
Beach, and had the giveaway live GUNG HO cds to be given away with any cd
purchase, and he was selling the entire back catalog as well.

5. Regarding my DeMeulemeester post, we really need to figure out a
universal symbol on this list for "I'm joking". Designers make things for
people of different sizes, but it does seem that many are unprepared to
accommodate larger people. But maybe things are changing - Donna Karan once
disparaged large women - and now she's testing plus-size boutiques at a few
Bloomies around the country. I laughed at the response post - "don't hate us
because we're...." Because you're what? Skinny? Look at who this list is in
honor of... LOL. (a symbol I don't care much for, but am using to indicate
that the prior sentiment was lighthearted.) And while we're throwing down
the sizes, I'm a six foot burly guy, and I can get by in a  woman's 14 if
need be - in fact, I'm wearing one now.

This was going to be a short post... now I need to start my Saturday.

Love and respect to all you lucky San Francisco-ers... and I'm praying for
you guys that her voice holds out. It was a lot more ragged last night than
Wednesday - and I remember her last three night Ca. stint, which ended in
Hollywood - with her voice shot to bits, after two sublime nights at the
Fillmore. Hopefully she'll rest it and come through beautifully.

Kev