Living Room Shows
Boston - Feb. 11-12, 2000
In surfing BowieNet recently, I was looking at Emm's site and noticed that she was scheduled to do a few of these living room appearances in Boston and so I thought that could be fun to check out. And so in doing some homework and making a few e-mails, I wound up with an invite to one of the shows in Allston (part of Boston) through one of the hosts, a guy named Sebastian. So on Friday night I made my way into town, found the apartment and Seb (as we'll call him) led me up to his place, where there were a half dozen or so people in the living room of his student apartment. "Emm's just gone out to get something to eat, but she'll be back in about 20 minutes" he informed me, and then proceeded to go and borrow a corkscrew for the wine I had brought (How one forgets the student life after all this time - essentials are music first, then maybe food - corkscrews are pretty far down the list). Anyway, I settled in and eventually more people came in as did Emm and a few of her friends. Her friend Jess Weiser was the "opening act" and when I say we were less than 20 people in Seb's 10'x15' living room, I'm not joking. It was pretty cool (although actually the tempreature was sweltering, but that's another story). So, Jess did a few songs - talented singer, and she played guitar and keyboards. Not bad, sort of Jewel-like.
During the break I went out to the kitchen and introduced myself to Emm. I told her that I was there basically 'cause I'm a Bowie-nut, and had heard about it through BowieNet. She thought that was really great. Of course I HAD to ask her a little bit about DB and what it was like to be on tour with him. She said it was an incredible experience, that she had gotten into it through Holly who recommended her. Emm and Holly share the same manager. She asked me what my favorite Bowie album is, and when I said Station to Station she was like "Oh my God, I'll start singing Word On a Wing." She said that there is "Stuff" going on with Bowie, but that she couldn't really talk about it yet. I didn't want to push.
My impressions of her from that chat are that she's really energetic, down-to-earth, and just really friendly and outgoing. She's likely to break into song at any moment. She's also very intense in a way that's hard to describe, especially when she starts playing.
So a very intimate gathering of just a few people and it was a really good time. She signed my CD (see pic below) and I'm waiting for a couple more photos of me and Emm soon. I guess "Science Fair" is not out in the States quite yet, but I'm listening to my copy right now, and it's quite good. Sort of mellow - it's not rocking, but it's good stuff.
So thanks to Seb and Kim, and to the lovely Emm for a terrific evening. If you get a chance to catch one of her future shows, see her in a Living Room now, because there's no question that she could be playing MUCH bigger rooms if she chooses.
DEmerson, 2/12/00
