WARNING: There be much rambling in this post. Okay, I lie. There be much rambling in all my posts, but this one especially. All the rambling is relevant to the main topic, though...I swear!

As much as I enjoy music, I don't often find myself attending concerts/live shows. Not that I don't like the idea of going to a concert, far from it. In fact I still have extremely fond memories of the few shows I've seen....all three of them. Yep, just three across a span of almost 30 years. Part of the issue stems from my tastes in music, as I'd wager a good 80% of the music I listen to comes from foreign acts who rarely tour the US, if at all. Of the remaining, I'll have to be honest and say that there is no blame but myself for them. Most of my friends have tastes in music that run more toward the mainstream, so in the times where I consider attending a concert I am most often faced with 'riding solo'. Habit drives me to great lengths in avoiding any crowds when I am alone, which tends to rule out the whole concert venue.

The damnable thing of it all is that I have been left burned quite a few times by this. To this day I still berate myself for missing Guano Apes at the Electric Factory, especially now since they've split. I discovered my enjoyment of Loreena McKennitt only a scant few months before she withdrew from music (though I understand she is now working on a new album, much to my surprise and delight!). I missed a chance to see Evanescence with one of my good friends, unfortunately due to a rather horrendous workload. I was sorely depressed in 2001 when I'd heard that John Lee Hooker had passed, and that he had been performing almost right up to his death! I'd pretty much resigned myself to having little luck when it came to concerts, but that I'd be sure to jump whenever a chance came my way.

Sometimes, it seems, dumb luck can strike the very heart of No Love For Frank, as it did earlier this evening. About two years ago my family made the switch from Comcast to DirecTV (we'd been Comcast subscribers since 1983, but recently they've been less than abysmal. I shall definitely be blogging on that quite soon!). As our specific Comcast locale carried a much smaller selection of channels than even most other Comcast regions, DirecTV was simply astounding. The first thing I did was sample that divining rod of cable news channels, the one you either love or hate....FoxNews. Now, this is 2003 and I'd never once seen the station that seems to so polarize people. Call it a morbid sense of curiosity, I guess.

"How does that pertain to a post on concerts", I hear you ask? Strangely enough, it is the catalyst that brought about the events I am writing about. One evening probably more than a year ago, when flipping through the channels, I noticed an ad on FoxNews for a new album called Pure, by a New Zealand artist named Hayley Westenra. I was, simply to say, enraptured. I must admit that I possess a great weakness for the female singing voice, specifically in the realms of operatic and folk styles. In other words, women who can really SING, unlike the standard bubblegum trash that passes for music among the 'popular music' scene. Turns out she is the fastest-selling debut classical artist of all time, has the the best selling album of all time in New Zealand, and was the biggest selling classical artist in Japan for 2004, so don't just take my word for it! Needless to say, within a few scant minutes of seeing the commercial I had placed my order. Not much else to say except that even now I still listen to that album almost daily...

Which brings me to tonight. I'd been poking around the web for a decent version of 'Wondrous Love' (Christian hymn published by Benjamin Franklin White in 1844...What wondrous love is this, oh my soul, oh my soul, etc.), part of my usual 'deflating from the workday' ritual of websurfing, when I thought of checking her website (she sings several christian songs, including a beautiful rendition of Amazing Grace). Why something compelled me to check the Events section I honestly cannot explain, but I am quite glad I was so compelled. Well below the large banner section promoting a UNICEF benefit concert (she is an Ambassador for both UNICEF and Save the Children), I read two words of which I am well familiar: NEW YORK. Apparently she will be playing the Supper Club in NYC on October 20th, which happens to be shortly before one of my closest friends, C.G. of So It's Come To This, is getting married, also in the City. I'd asked two of my close friends if they would be interested in attending, but both declined. Unsurprisingly, as it turns out neither had even heard of Hayley nor it seems were they too enamored of going to the City on a Thursday evening. Perfectly legitimate reasons to my mind for passing. So once again I was faced with the prospect of deciding whether or not to run solo.

Now I may not be the most perceptive of individuals, but when fate decides to pull a Frank Thomas with a clue-by-four on my skull...well, I tend to listen. I'm going to be in the exact same location around the exact same time as the event, and for an artist I would most like to hear live and would not expect to be appearing in the US at all! So I decided I'm going to go...by myself, on my own, flying solo, and all those other trite phrases. I actually just received the confirmation email for my tickets. Call it a late birthday present to myself. Hell, I'm thinking of making a whole evening of it. Drive down instead of taking the train, show up in the full three piece, then hit Ruths Chris for steak and a cigar afterwards. Should prove to be a very interesting evening....now I just have to figure out in which box I packed my digital camera!