kevin devine and the goddamn band, 06.30.06, tonic

cupcake groupie
my friends always tease me. i can walk past parker posey or johnny knoxville or whoever is big on e! at the moment, and casually recount my glance at glamour, but when it comes to interacting with musicians-- well-known or not, and most likely not glamourous-- i become bandy-legged and furiously blush while my mouth seems to lose all tersenss and i start giggling like an idiot. people who play things mesmerize me, but for all the dorky reasons. i am not your particular pamela des barres or penny lane, i'm not here to do tricks. i just want to talk about music, man... have an intellectual conversation; i want to know what goes on in the mind of artists, because sadly, i can only hope to listen and write about it all.

so it's no surprise while i'm waiting in the line outside of tonic, i practically passed out when i learned kevin devine's friends were behind me and he came by to chit chat for a bit while the other bands soundchecked. i turned red, and i was too afraid to turn around and make eye contact, which was hard considering his head full of titian hair is naturally eye-catching. i eavesdropped instead and tried to to breathe normally and attempted to not do something stupid.

pink christmas lights
in the end it was all okay. we were finally let in, and he and his band hung out with their friends around the bar and then retreated backstage to get ready to open the show. the crowd was very excited. people were looking forward to hear kevin, more so than any of the other groups, and he was opening. "why are you starting this gig?" one fan screamed from the audience. that's a good question. when he and the g.d. band were on, everyone flooded to the stage. it was a young group of fans, but they were completely enamoured. everyone knew every word, everyone cheered whenever he started a song.

his band was wonderfully together, and very at ease on stage. kevin devine managed to make a few quips and giggly moments. his voice brash and emotional, he was able to conjure up songs as he wore them on his sleeve, in front of all of us. "cotton crush" was, of course, considerably well received and he even threw out a few new ones which were pretty awesome as well.

the only downer in the evening was when the sound guy accidentally cut them off before they were finished. thinking that the band walking off the stage was a signal that this was it, instead of kevin doing a lone, acoustic, final song, he put up the lights and started the house music. the audience, who remembered kevin promising them at least one more song, started booing and pleading for the show to continue. kevin talked to the powers-that-be while packing up his guitar, and it was decided that the next act needed to go on. this choice resulted in a potential mini riot, with boos, jeers, and catcalls as the emcee proceeded to the stage. the people were there for kevin, they weren't around to see the next act (a pretty pretentious attempt at reggae-scat-ambience which i left 30 seconds after hearing), so it's no suprise the place literally emptied out onto the street as the next group set up.

all in all, a very excellent show sans the space cadet sound guy, but we all make mistakes. getting the chance to hear that final song be played is a good enough reason to spend twenty bucks to k.d & the g.d. band play at webster in august. looking forward to resting my eyes on that shock of coppery hair once more.


ps: don't think i was too cool to tell him he did a great job. i totally did. cupcake groupie 4 life.

/jen/




up next: rookie of the year/night kills the day