Indigo Girls at Radio City Music Hall
June 4, 2002

The concert was great. Amy and Emily were just so on, and their band (just a three-piece) was tight, and they all just seemed so tickled to be playing onstage at RCMH.

Trish and I got to NYC about 4, and parked in the garage up at 70th and West End (where I always park). We took a cab to O'Lunney's Pub and had a beer and an early dinner. Then we wandered around for a little while -- Times Square, Rockefeller Plaza, etc -- ending up at the Metropolitan Museum shop where Trish found a garden book she'd been looking for for a long time.

I'd heard and read that security at RCMH was really tight, that you had to line up and it took a long time to get inside after the doors opened, etc, so when it got close to 7pm we went and lined up at the barricades they'd set up outside the entrances. We were the first people in line, and when the doors opened we were the first people into the building! (Even better -- the first people into the ladies' room! If you've ever been to an IGs concert, you know how long the line gets for the ladies' room...)

Radio City Music Hall is very cool. It was opened in 1932, I think, but refurbished in the late 1990s. It's just gorgeous inside, very art deco. I have to admit that one of my favorite parts of it was the bathroom. It had this very cool tile floor, and these gorgeous green sinks, and old-time electric hand dryers that you start with a foot pedal. Like I said, we were the first people in there, and as soon as I saw those green sinks I whipped out my camera and started snapping shots of them. (I do know how weird that sounds, no need to tell me.)

The auditorium is really pretty, and it's bathed in this golden light that just makes everything feel warm. We had a good time watching the place fill up before the concert. As I wrote yesterday, this was my third IGs concert, and I was thinking last night that the IGs crowd has been one of the nicest crowds I've ever been in, every time I've seen them play. I just get such a friendly, happy vibe from the crowd at an Indigo Girls show. That's one show where I never feel self-conscious about standing up to dance. When I get into that crowd, I always feel like, hey, these are my people! I embrace my inner lesbian!

The opening act was Danielle Howle, from South Carolina, whom I'd never heard of before yesterday. She had a great voice (really an amazing voice) but didn't connect with the audience too well. Tonight (at the second RCMH show) K's Choice is opening. I would have really liked to see them. I have two of their CDs.

So. Then the IGs. Well, they were just great. The music was so good. They played so many of my favorite songs, I can't really even begin to name them all. I will maybe post the set list if I find it sometime later. They did several of the songs I like best from the new album, too. I was happy they did one of my favorite old songs, as well -- Tried to be True. They sounded great. Emily's guitar playing seems to have reached a new level in the last couple of years. And they seemed so happy to be there, so thrilled when the audience sang back at them, all of those things.

And they looked great, too! Amy was smiling all night. She was wearing this red and black plaid skirt/pants combo thing, very distinctive, with black combat boots and a black tank top. The best part was she had her hair in two braids, pigtails. Oh my god. She looked adorable. Emily was looking good, too, very relaxed, in jeans and a t-shirt that said, "Don't ruin this with words," with another shirt open on top of that.

During one break while Amy was tuning, Emily took a few questions from the audience (I love it when they do that -- they did it at Penn State when I saw them, too). Then she noticed this kid who was up on his dad's shoulders wearing this big rainbow hat, and asked him how old he was. Turns out he just turned seven yesterday. Emily and Amy seemed duly impressed by that, and asked him his name (Jamie), and then they started singing happy birthday to him. And the whole audience sang it with them. It sounded so cool, echoing down off the balconies and the huge ceiling. Can you imagine?

Even considering all the music and musicians I love, really love, I think I can still say that the Indigo Girls are my favorite act, ever. So many of their songs just mean so much to me on a really personal level. All those songs from Swamp Ophelia leave me in tears every time. Even last night. And I don't even care, it just makes me so happy to hear them again.

I took a few pictures. Click on them to see the bigger versions.