A post in which I see a living blues legend live

Poppy is still hanging in there. Mom and her sister Donna are there. They have been waiting for status, but the doctors say the next 24-48 hours will tell the tale.

I had the house pressure-washed today. It looks really good, but it knocked a lot of paint off the windows and my rockers, so there's a lot of re-painting to do. Which needed doing anyway, of course, only now it's a lot more obvious. Plus my old windows don't seal like they should. When I came in the house, debris and water had shot in the window frames when he washed them. Not good, but it can be cleaned up.

Tonight was the Koko Taylor concert at the Peace Center. I got the tickets for Christmas, so I'd been waiting to see her for months. It was pretty awesome just to be in the same room with her, breathing her air.

It was AWESOME!!!!

But it was also a bit weird. Koko is 81 now (and still performing!!) which is a small miracle in itself. For 81, she put on a helluva show. She's still belting them out. But I think it was easier for dana to get into it than it was for me. I had heard some of these songs from recordings when she was in her prime, but I don't think dana had. Don't get me wrong, I'm taking nothing from the woman - she put on a show - but she of course doesn't have the strength and delivery that she did back when.

It was also odd that she had a Japanese lead guitar. We found out later that he was filling in for a band member who was ill. He was very talented (well, he sang a few songs, and his voice wasn't that great), but once again, it was just odd.

Additional oddness was from the choreography. Cause Koko was out there feeling good - which is what the blues is all about sometimes. She was feeling good, and going with it, and that's great. But still there were moments when I realized afresh that the woman up on stage doing a bit of the hoochie-koo is 81 freakin years old. So while it was very cool to be in a room with a living legend breathing her air, it was at the same time frankly a bit surreal. I was torn between the awesomeness of it and the inherent humor of seeing a woman of her age a-vampin us. Still, it was a very enjoyable evening. She knew that the people there to see her were there because we love her, and she was happy to still be doing what she loved, and happy that people still came to see her. At one point, and enthusiastic audience member yelled "I love you Koko!" She said back "I love you too, baby. I love everyone in this room. Cause everyone in this room is a fan, and paid money to get in that do'. And I love all of you." The concert was as much a celebration of her as it was about the music. And good blues is of course about going with the spirit of the moment - bringing it out and emphasizing it. It was great.

The other oddness came from Greenvillians, who seem to delight in finding novel ways to express their lameness. First, there were like eight black people there. I didn't know there were that many white people in Greenville county who knew who Koko Taylor was. Apparently they didn't advertise in the right places, because they should have been able to fill the place easily. So first of all, this one guy (wearing about a pint of Polo cologne, incidentally) ran up and down the aisles all night taking pictures, after they had specifically said no pictures or cameras were allowed. I don't mind someone snapping a discrete pic for a momento, but this guy was running up and down the aisles stepping on people and went right up to the stage while she was performing, set up his elbows as a tripod, and focused and all. It was to the point that he was annoying people and was pretty obnoxious anyway. During her final number (before the encore) there was a couple up front shagging. Shagging. To Koko Taylor. I turned to dana and said "I have never felt so white in my life." So kudos to the Greenvillians for showing up to see Koko Taylor at all, but their lameness while there takes away some princess points in my mind.

When dana and I got back, we got tore down some more. Afterwards, Justin called me about some great movie he was watching on TCM. That's great and all, but I told him I was just too black to watch that kind of thing at the moment.