Amanda Palmer really is just that awesome.
She really, really is.
Yesterday I went to the Amanda Palmer videoshoot Megolas for Leeds United, which will be the first single off her new solo album, "Who Killed Amanda Palmer".
Pictoral evidence! I am the shorter one!
Which was pretty fabulous. A lot of sitting around and waiting, but that kind of thing is a lot less tedious when you're watching dancers rehearse:
,
Or people in Leeds United shirts bond with people in corsets and lampshades, kiss, and then start a food fight.
And it really helps when you hear instructions like "Can the flayed man hold the scarf? I think that would be really good." or "You can kind of stroke her breast a little, before you pie her in the face."
More pictures here, of variable quality.
I also went with Megolas on Thursday last week to see Amanda at the ICA.
She really is kind of amazing. Great stage presence, and her voice is incredible. As well as doing a bunch of songs from her her new album, she did a song written with Neil Gaimen as the modern version of those sitting-at-a-bar-smoking-and-thinking-about-lost-loves type songs (since you can't sit at a bar and smoke these days.
I Google You
She did an unspoken-word intro which is where my new icon is from:
And a ukelele cover of Radiohead where she came right out into the audience and got a non-radiohead fan to sing a chorus of Creep:
There was also a cover of Hallelujah which managed to not be a cover of the Jeff Buckley cover of Hallelujah (which is amazing in and of itself), but was also just heartbreaking. A girl from the audience came on stage and had her hair cut off while Amanda Palmer sang and it was-- I had that hard ump in my throat, the one you get when you're this close to tears and I had to actually work not to weep. The audience was-- not singing along, because no-one wanted to make it harder to hear Amanda. They whispered along, so there was this ghost-echo to the lines that you could only hear at the edges.
At the end of the show, someone in the audience called out, "Fuck, I love you." With the kind of awe and sincerity and worship you normally only get after last call or a last minute match-winning goal for the finals.
"I'd turn straight for you!" Another guy yelled.
Amanda: "I'd turn gay for you, and then we'd both be fucked."
More pictures over here.
My feelings on the whole thing can be pretty much summed up by this picture.
Yesterday I went to the Amanda Palmer videoshoot Megolas for Leeds United, which will be the first single off her new solo album, "Who Killed Amanda Palmer".
Pictoral evidence! I am the shorter one!
Which was pretty fabulous. A lot of sitting around and waiting, but that kind of thing is a lot less tedious when you're watching dancers rehearse:
,
Or people in Leeds United shirts bond with people in corsets and lampshades, kiss, and then start a food fight.
And it really helps when you hear instructions like "Can the flayed man hold the scarf? I think that would be really good." or "You can kind of stroke her breast a little, before you pie her in the face."
More pictures here, of variable quality.
I also went with Megolas on Thursday last week to see Amanda at the ICA.
She really is kind of amazing. Great stage presence, and her voice is incredible. As well as doing a bunch of songs from her her new album, she did a song written with Neil Gaimen as the modern version of those sitting-at-a-bar-smoking-and-thinking-about-lost-loves type songs (since you can't sit at a bar and smoke these days.
Click to viewI Google You
She did an unspoken-word intro which is where my new icon is from:
And a ukelele cover of Radiohead where she came right out into the audience and got a non-radiohead fan to sing a chorus of Creep:
There was also a cover of Hallelujah which managed to not be a cover of the Jeff Buckley cover of Hallelujah (which is amazing in and of itself), but was also just heartbreaking. A girl from the audience came on stage and had her hair cut off while Amanda Palmer sang and it was-- I had that hard ump in my throat, the one you get when you're this close to tears and I had to actually work not to weep. The audience was-- not singing along, because no-one wanted to make it harder to hear Amanda. They whispered along, so there was this ghost-echo to the lines that you could only hear at the edges.
At the end of the show, someone in the audience called out, "Fuck, I love you." With the kind of awe and sincerity and worship you normally only get after last call or a last minute match-winning goal for the finals.
"I'd turn straight for you!" Another guy yelled.
Amanda: "I'd turn gay for you, and then we'd both be fucked."
More pictures over here.
My feelings on the whole thing can be pretty much summed up by this picture.