An Evening with Fran Healy

Friday was my lucky day - I really should have bought a lotto ticket!

So, Owen and I went out on a date, sans Hazel! Thanks mom :) Well, dinner was with mom and Hazel, but the rest of the night we were out on our own! We went to a concert and then to Voodoo Donuts! It was my kind of evening!

First, we had dinner at Tastebud Farm . It was ok, but kind of expensive for pizza, so probably will not go back there. I much prefer Mississippi Pizza or Hotlips. Anyway, we chose this place because it was across from the Aladdin Theater. I had never been there before either, and I was nervous about getting there early enough to get good seats, since the concert was general admission. I kind of worried for nothing, because we got there 10 mins before the doors opened and were the 3rd in line. I was amazed, we got front row seats! I have never gotten front row to any concert. Luckily I had my knitting, because there was an hour waiting for the concert to start. So I got quite a few rows done on my sweater:) The lady next to me was amazed that I had thought to bring something to do, and then she ignored me the rest of the time, I probably scared her.

Ok, so I'm sitting there knitting away and in walks Fran 20 mins before the show started, and he walked right in front of me to get to the backstage area. Wow, that was pretty cool. I wanted to jump up and squeeee, of course I didn't, I played it cool (which will surprise some of you, I know).

I think some back story is in order.

Owen and I have known each other for over 12 years. I've been listening to Fran and his band Travis for about as long. I've seen them 3 times before (all in 2000) - 2x they opened for another band (Oasis) and saw them twice on that tour, the 3rd time they played at the Roseland in Portland (this is one of my favorite concerts of all time). They've been to Portland one other time more recently, but we couldn't go to the concert for some reason. So, their music reminds me a lot of when Owen and I were first dating and living together, because we listened to them all the time. Their album "The Invisible Band" came out when we bought our first car and that stayed in the cd player for MONTHS! That music got me through a lot of stuff, including a 1 hour commute to a job I hated, for 4 months. This time Fran was touring by himself to promote a solo album that is coming out in October. I feel so lucky that he came to Portland, because the tour was only 6 shows.

Back to the story.

Promptly at 8 he comes out and we go wild (well as wild as 100 or so people can get). He decided to ditch the mic and amp and just played acoustic. Oh my, that was a treat! So, instead of being behind a mic, he was right in front of us and it was like a private concert - so so so so cool. Really hard to describe too, because these songs mean a lot to me and this night they seemed so honest and real, just a totally different experience. Oh and he went Storytellers on us and told us stories behind all of the songs he played! My favorite was about the song "Side" and he wrote it originally as a rap song (LOL), but that got nixed and the lyric "a circle only has one side" is from one of his physics teachers - he said his mind was blown away by this fact, and I have to admit when I heard this song the first time my mind was blown too). The song "Rocking Chair" got the tears flowing, because it was written from the point of view of a woman with Alzheimers from a TV interview he watched, all I could think of was my grandmother. He played so many songs - 15 that I can remember, but maybe one or two more, including a few from the new album. Oh I can't wait to hear it! For the encore he admitted that he did not have a set list, and asked if we had requests. Poor guy was bombarded with so many. I am pretty sure I was the only one yelling out "Driftwood", and he played it. That was really special, it has to be my favorite song of all time, and apparently it almost wasn't a song. He said that he was washing dishes and watching Cheers on TV and mulling over a dialog between Norm and Clif about being driftwood. Then he had the melody and went to record it, but instead of recording, he just got footsteps of him leaving the room. He reviewed the tape and at the very end there was him singing a bit of it and voila, Driftwood was not lost forever.

After the show, he didn't leave, he just hopped off the stage to sign autographs. Of course, I was NOT prepared AT ALL :( I didn't think to bring a camera or anything to sign, or even a token gift - stupid stupid stupid! I got a couple of grainy shots with the iphone, yup. Oh well, it was just hard to think of something to say that didn't sound dumb. I mean, at home, you can think of so many things to say to someone whose work you admire, and then you become dumbstruck when you actually meet them in person. I mentioned the commute thing and that he should go to Voodoo Doughnuts afterwards, and that was it. If I could have hogged more of his time, I would have also said that his music means a lot to me (more than he could ever know), that even with an accent he speaks so clearly, that I am also a vegetarian and that I really liked how soft his shirt was.

When he sang "Indefinitely" it was about time not really existing and life is just moments and wanting to live in a moment forever. Well, I really wanted this night to go on forever, I could listen to him sing for about that long.

Well, we had to leave and I didn't want to go home right away, so we went to Voodoo (since I had mentioned it, and that's all I could think about eating) and got a couple of donuts to have for breakfast and one to share on the ride home while we listened to the other song I had wanted to hear "We are Monkeys" A little Travis song that makes me laugh.