Any of you who know me even a little bit know that I am wholly and irreversibly in love with David Gray, I have been since my junior year of high school when I heard "Be Mine" and took it as a cue to investigate his prior albums. To me, he is the ultimate lyricist and poet. He is a musician, not just a singer, and it shows so vividly in his arrangements. The hardest parts of my life have been eased and narrated by David Gray's songs. "Shine" in particular is my absolute favorite song and has been responsible for picking me up off the floor and getting me back on my feet more times than I can count. I think the best way to describe it is through the scene in Love Actually when Alan Rickman's character is chiding his wife (played by Emma Thompson) for still listening to her old Joni Mitchell albums. Her character replies, "It's because I love her. And true love lasts a lifetime."
Now, please understand that I'm not saying that I'm romantically in love with David Gray. I don't know him and I'm not interested in being a freaky stalker fan who irrationally transfers her love of the music to the person. I just love his music through and through. True love lasts a lifetime.
Last night Anu and I went to his concert at the Hogg memorial Auditorium and had an amazing time. Listening to David's albums is one thing, but his artistry is really showcased in his live shows where you can't help but be completely blown away by his wild energy and beautiful concert arrangements of songs you only thought you loved before. I've always thought "Freedom" was a lovely song, but once you hear it live there is no other way to hear it. The concert we saw last night was his fourth show in four days and he was still 100% on and gave us everything he had, he must have been exhausted but there's no way you would have known by watching him. He performed songs from his new album and revisited the classics that everyone loves the most, topping it all off with a five song encore that ended with an insanely energetic rendition of "Please Forgive Me" as per tradition. It was amazing.
In the weeks leading up to the show I had admitted (in a state of mild inebriation) that I had never met anyone famous before and that it was one of my dearest ambitions to someday meet David. I hadn't planned on pursuing that, though, because I had no idea how to go about meeting him and I really didn't want to be disappointed if I tried and wasn't successful. Anu insisted, however, that we at least give it a go because it meant so much to me. I spent some time looking at the forums on David's website (which I don't participate in, again, I'm in it for the music. Not to prove I'm the most obsessive fan in the world.) and the people who had met him insisted that he was the nicest person you could ever meet and that he would often stop and pose for photos/sign autographs for people who waited to meet him after his shows. I think that was what finally sealed it for me, so I decided I would do what I could.
After the show Anu and I lagged behind the crowd and took a seat along the sidewalk that went to the tour buses. At first there were at least 30 people who looked like they would be waiting too, but after 15 minutes or so most of them had moved on and there were only about 10 of us left. 30 minutes after the show had ended a few of his band mates walked by and kind of laughed (in a nice way) at the fact that we were still there. Anu thinks I probably should have asked them for an autograph to be nice, but I tend to think that would be a sort of douchey pandering move, they knew we weren't waiting for them. I'd say we waited about 10 more minutes and then we saw someone come out the back door with 4 security people. It was dark, so at first we couldn't tell if it was him or not but then a few of us recognized the widow's peak and started to mentally flip out. Anu and I happened to be standing closest to the door, so I stood up once I realized it was actually him and started grinning like a complete idiot.
The people on the forums really weren't lying, he is SUCH a nice person. He saw me stand up and sort of half smiled and started heading toward us. He shook both of our hands without us having to ask and was really quiet and humble when we couldn't stop going on and on about what a great show it had been. I asked him if there was any possible way I could bother him for a photo while he was there and he replied, "sure, sure, no problem at all". My camera's flash decided not to participate, so the first photo came out super blurry. At that point I was crazy nervous because I didn't want to be that girl who made him stand for 40 million pictures while I figured my camera out, but HE was the one who said, "uh oh, I'm not sure that one will come out." Anu took another picture, and while the flash still didn't go off the picture came out much better. He offered to stand for another picture, but I didn't want to take up too much of his time so I just thanked him about another 2 billion times and skipped off to the car.
I know, the amount of detail I just put into a 5 minute encounter is completely dorky. Still, it was an amazing moment for me. I am so blown away by how nice he is to fans and how approachable he was. It was also really neat to see the difference between his onstage persona (crazy energetic and completely shameless) and how he is in person (shy, reserved, quiet). Plus I got a picture! Aaaaah!
So cool. I can't wait until he comes back to Austin for his next album, I know it's in the works so it shouldn't be too long! Amazing man, amazing music, amazing evening. Thank you so much David, you have no idea, it meant the world to me!
Love and Kisses,
Daner
Posts
Awesome!
ReplyDelete