Amanda Palmer Two NYC shows

14th June 2009 Posted by Amy

posted in Artist News |

Amanda Palmer Two NYC shows
Review by Karen Hester

June 3, 2009 – Housing Works fundraiser
June 5, 2009 – The Highline Ballroom

At the Housing Works fundraiser on Wednesday Amanda sung Astronaut, Perfect Fit, a ukulele song about her childhood home, I Google You and Tegan and Sara cover Dark Come Soon.

Amanda had written Perfect Fit during her time as a living statue, feeling a bit useless compared to most of the working world (“I can paint my face and stand very very still / its not very practical but it still pays the bills”) and serendipitously Neil Gaiman had an unpublished story about living statues, which he read. During question time Neil asked Amanda about being a statue and she talked about the obsessives who brought along gifts but never spoke to her. “Are there living statue collectors, like bird spotters, who travel around ticking them off?” Neil asked. He then took out his notebook and scribbled down that idea, perhaps for a short film.

They auctioned off the book of dead Amanda photos and Neil writings for $2000 (“naked pictures of me, naked pictures” chanted Amanda to possible buyers). She waved a naked photo in Neil’s face and he became flustered. Neil drew pink hearts on Amanda’s eyes on my poster. One of his Amanda stories repeats the line “I painted her eyes on myself”, about a man dining with his dead lover.

The Highline Ballroom show on Friday had a great and unusual set-list – no Coin-Operated Boy, Mrs O, or Half Jack.

Amanda started on the balcony with Bright Eye’s Lua on ukelele. She played a new song inspired by a trout’s heart which continued to beat for a few minutes out of its body (lyrics referred to her heart as a red six sided glass die cut in half, which was a bit much.)

A gorgeous gorgeous Thirty Whacks was played as her assistant Beth’s birthday request. The delicacy of the song was somewhat undercut by the lump of birthday cake stuck to Amanda’s chin. Beth’s birthday cake ended up in the audience where there was a cake fight, with two of the main participants standing next to me. They emitted a sour butter smell for the rest of the concert as their body heat melted the icing.

Cute Oasis and mad Yakity Yak with opening band The Lisps, a Leonard Cohen song with her dad (One of us cannot be wrong), and powerful Delilah with Emilyn Brodsky, who wore a disturbing flowered pink jumpsuit and sang the part of Delilah intensely, a delightful mixture of drunk on pink alcohol and naturally unhinged. I could have done without I Google You, a joke song of diminishing returns. She also played Missed Me, Gravity, Astronaut, Runs in the Family, Ampersand and Guitar Hero.

Amanda’s voice was great, but she’ll need surgery again if she doesn’t treat it better :(

The audience sucked, not just near me – elsewhere, Meth (fellow concert goer-aal) was considering knocking someone over. Will be really sad if she becomes someone you can’t see because of asshole fans.

Some other reviews:
[Highline show]

[Photos from the Highline Show]

This entry was posted on Sunday, June 14th, 2009 at 8:55 am and is filed under Artist News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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1 On June 14th, 2009, Anna said:

Sounds like a cool show, but shame about rude fans. Oh well, Amanda rules.

posted on June 14th, 2009 at 12:47 pm

2 On June 15th, 2009, Amy said:

Asshole fans are the sole reason I have not and will not be buying tickets to see Ani DiFranco or Tori Amos this year. It’s sad, but they’ve ruined the concert experience for me.

posted on June 15th, 2009 at 7:31 am

3 On August 10th, 2009, J.J. said:

Amanda Palmer sucks! She really is the most atrocious example of ambition without skill or talent. She is mediocre at best and fucks up the web with her navel gazing and self promotion. The record company must be holding their breaths waiting for her ugly ass to disappear.

posted on August 10th, 2009 at 4:54 pm

4 On September 7th, 2009, Brian said:

Amanda Palmer is truly awful. Avoid at all costs or bring ear plugs.

posted on September 7th, 2009 at 2:12 am

5 On September 7th, 2009, Chris_con said:

Actually, J.J., she has done everything in her will to get the fuck off her horrible record label and they have not done SHIT to promote her with her new solo album. they will still not drop her. if no one’s going to promote her, she might as well promote herself.

P.s. amanda palmer is amazing

posted on September 7th, 2009 at 5:26 pm

6 On March 17th, 2010, Cherish Shintaku said:

An execllent write-up with legitimate points, I’ve been a lurker here for some time but desire to become much more engaged soon.

posted on March 17th, 2010 at 7:37 am

7 On April 3rd, 2010, forex signal service said:

I just stumbled upon your blog and wanted to say that I have really enjoyed reading your blog posts.Any way Ill be subscribing to your feed and I hope you post again soon

posted on April 3rd, 2010 at 7:50 am

8 On April 10th, 2010, salamander said:

What about Amanda Palmer’s bizarre Scientology connections and the fact that she is marrying into one of the major international Scientology families in the world? Amanda Palmer’s “fiancee” Neil Gaiman denied being a Scientologist a month after giving the cult $35,000.00 (Cornerstone Newsletter November 2009, where Gaiman is listed as a Scientologist in good-standing). All of Gaiman’s siblings are high ranking Scientologists and Gaiman has consistently funded the cult his entire adult life.

posted on April 10th, 2010 at 5:30 pm

9 On April 11th, 2010, Amy said:

I did a little digging and it seems that neither Neil or Amanda are scientologists. Neil’s father was, but he is not. But of course, believe what you like.

posted on April 11th, 2010 at 10:04 am

10 On May 30th, 2010, mest said:

Sorry to burst your bubble, Amy, but Gaiman and Palmer are Scientologists. Gaiman just gave half a million dollars to the cult through his business partner Mary Gaiman.

posted on May 30th, 2010 at 11:58 pm

11 On May 31st, 2010, Amy said:

Gonna need a source to believe it. But I don’t really care what their “religious” beliefs are. Karen wrote a great review and I posted it. And it’s sparked conversation. So it’s all good!

posted on May 31st, 2010 at 10:07 am