Sunday night was pretty much a replay of Saturday but without any surprises. Sunday, the MC was wearing a dress she said she'd gotten out of Lucy's closet. Tig did pretty much her same routine. This cracked me up--obviously many people go to see Lucy every time they can-folks who are accompanying her need to be aware of that. Of course Lucy did the same thing she'd done the night before also--but that was Lucy. Grin.

Sunday night we had sitting seats. We were sitting slightly above and to the side of the VVip section. As we waited for the show to start, I saw Daisy standing up, turned around, kind of half facing us and talking to someone next to her. I've never really seen much of a resemblence to Lucy in Daisy. But that night, her hair was pinned up on one side in a sophisticated do, with some of her hair spilling down along the side of her neck. She was standing tall and looking up at the person she was talking to with great delight in her face. It was dark in the hall but she was softly lit by spillover from the stage. And in that moment, in the way she was standing, the way she was smiling, the way she was paying absolute attention to the person she was talking to, the way the light from the stage lit up her excited, happy and twinkling eyes, she was pure Lucy redeux. There's no way in hell Lucy could ever claim that kid wasn't hers.

The second night, people who were up near the front told me that the fans were packed in much more closely than the first night. One person said her impression was that the crowd wasn't any bigger, but that people wanted to be ever closer to Lucy. She said she literally couldn't shift her shoulders around.

And once again, Lucy sizzled. Lucy growled. Lucy boogied. And once again she had us eating out of her palm.

And you know what--on Sunday, sitting up above the crowd, I was startled to notice that once Luce was out, there were arms up in the air everywwhere. Arms holding cameras or just arms thrust up into the air waving. I didn't notice that the first night. I bet there was even more shifting waves of fans trying to see the stage without their view being blocked by other folks' waving arms.

As she did last night, Lucy once again pointed to the back of the hall and told everyone to turn around. Many did of course. Then she told us to tell the sound man that we had come to hear her, not the rock and roll band. She said, "There are 500 fans here-you don’t want them mad at you. You’d be better off having Xena mad at you. SHE has some compassion.”

Now the first night I just let the experience wash over me. Then, as I wrote up my initial quick report later, I was surprised by how few of the songs I could remember. So I decided that on the second night, I would write up a list (especially since I was sitting down at a table the second night). Here is what I managed to write down Sunday night on a wet and crumpled bar napkin. I'm fairly certain this was pretty much the same as Saturday's set:

"Jump Into My Fire"
"Down On My Knees" (A Lucy composition that she sang partially from down on her knees)
"Total Control"
"Maxine" (One of Lucy's favorites--she's been singing this one for years.)
"Don't Let Me Down"
"Like The Way I Love You" (I think that was the title. It's a Melissa Etheridge Song that she called the angry lesbian song. She tossed the name "Gabrielle" into that one.)
"Do You Wanna Dance"
"Cowboy Song" (Another Lucy composition. This is a song inspired by Luce meeting Lyle Lovett and his girlfriend on a plane. This was the song she expropriated a cowboy hat from a fan for. Oddly enough, that same fan was wearing the same hat and standing in the same place the second night too! Grin.)
"Something To Talk About"
"Piece Of My Heart"
(Sharlotte sang "When Billy Comes Home" as Lucy was backstage changing.)
"Tell Momma"
"What I'd Say" (with Renee dancing alongside her)
"I'll Stand By You" (Lucy ended this with "Semper Fi"
"Pull Up To My Bumper"
And the encore: "Drive My Car"


These things were also written on that napkin:

Don't you hate it when you miss your mouth
The finger for her yell. Take that Producers!
Drunk as a lizard
Relaxed Dancing
>From the Back
Score one for the humans

Only two of these six truncated notes trip off any memories for me.

Lucy said when she first came out that tonight there were producers in the audience. She mentioned one (two?) of the Battlestar Galactica guys. During her set she said to us (as she had the night before, with the exact same results), "When I raise my finger, I want you all to give the Xena yell. And when I lower my finger, stop." She stuck her finger out and raised it slowly and yes, many folks in the audience ripped out the YI YI YI YI YI. (Or, as Luce says it is, "L L L L L".) Then she lowered her finger and as she did, the voices got softer and softer and then totally winked out.

When she did this on Sunday, she finished it by looking into the crowd and saying, "Take THAT, producers!"

I find "Don't you hate it when you miss your mouth?", "Drunk as a lizard", "Relaxed dancing" and "From the back" intriguing. Yet elusive. Elusive to this very day. "Score one for the humans" was a comment on her role as D'Anna in Battlestar, when the humans win an encounter with her.

I hadn't really noticed that the songs were about our relationship with Lucy and her relationship with us. Renee said at the con on Sunday after watching Lucy Saturday night that she'd noticed a theme. Looking this list over, I can see threads about Lucy's career and our input into that career. And our steadfast commitment to and from us and Luce in "I'll stand by you", especially with Lucy ending it by saying, "Semper Fi". (Which as probably everyone does know, is short for the latin, Semper Fidelis-"Always faithful".) I would say there were some Xena themes too-speaking of subtext and Xena and her grrls, we got "Let's give them something to talk about" and "Pull Up To My Bumper" was obviously a reference to Borias. ;-> But "Baby You Can Drive My Car"-what's that got to do with us?

At the end of the concert, Lucy talked to us, thanking us for still being around. She also as she always does, mentioned our charitable endeavors as being something that is deeply important and moving to her. She looked very earnest as she declared, "You've made my career worthwhile." What an extraordinary thing for an actor to say. As I've said before, I'm so grateful that it was Lucy who is the only actor I've ever been so intensely interested in and such a deeply committed fan of. I could have fallen for some twit, ya know? You know, no I couldn't. Because I fell hard for Xena the character. Enough that I got interested in the woman who had brought her to life. But it was watching the woman who had brought her to life on interviews being intelligent, witty, informed, being just so real and regular a human being that made me for the first time in my life become a hard core fan of an actor. So--no self-centered twits need apply--it won't do you any good.

And, back to Lucy at the Roxy, what an extraordinary two performances this was. Both nights Lucy was on just a wild joyous tear. She was having a roaring good time and her fire, passion and extravagant joy ignited the whole hall along with her. Her joy in what she was doing was matched by our joy in watching her do it. It was a total BLAST!

And it struck me this night that a lot of the folks here had worn their redial fingers to the bone voting for Lucy in Duets-and this was their reward. Because if Lucy hadn't gotten to return for so many weeks, if we hadn't endured all that dialing to keep her coming back, she would probably have not had the guts to do this show. But Duets gave her confidence. And that gave us this show.

This event is the closest I will ever get to a Christian revivalist tent meeting. (At least I hope it is.) I'm betting we matched much of the same unbridled joy and love and glory revved up by those charismatic preachers. Gods help us if Lucy ever decides to start a religion.

Some fans who had only been able to afford one night at the Roxy asked me, "If you can separate out the surprise of the first night, which night was better?" The show was pretty much the same each night. But I would have to say that the first night was pretty special. We were all just so up, just so primed and just so ready for this. Many of us had been hoping for this for years, for Lucy to sing for us at a con. To get not just a song or two but a full on performance with a full back-up band and singers was, aw hell, it was just magical. So to be there the first time this type of event ever happened was a really engaging experience. It was really special.

But Sunday was also an excellent experience. Sunday was very close in excitement--I think obviously especially if you hadn't been there Saturday, after listening to everyone talking about what a great time they had had, the excitement level would probably be even higher than for the folks who went without knowing what was going to happen. So though I hate it when fans say things like, "I know I speak for everyone when I say that (fill in the blank)", I'm going to bet that "your" first night whether it was Saturday or Sunday was the best night in terms of enjoying the experience. People who only went Sunday had the advantage of getting all jazzed from hearing those who had gone on Saturday being so exhuberant about the show. Plus there was the advantage of Lucy having been onstage at the con and having talked about the show--why she picked those songs, where she met Sharlotte, Renee talking about how after being at the club, she understood how much we love Lucy and how much she loves us-and tearing up and crying just a little bit over it, Renee also saying she would try to work up some new moves for that night, lots of little details that I feel enhanced and deepend the experience at that evening's performance.

For both nights, there was the reality that not many people have seen Lucy perform live. Also, this was a pure Lucy venue, unlike all the other times she's performed when she was sharing the show with others. Which made it really fun. We were more free to show our appreciation for Lucy than at any other show, since it was just us, just us Lucy fans, no other star's fans, no other performers to be aware of and respectful of, no oblivious season ticket holders mixed in the audience who kept saying things like, "Where's that Xena woman? I thought she was going to be in this show" as we had at "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes".

Folks had asked Lucy at the con if she'd be appearing anywhere else. She has said that she's thinking of taking this show on the road. Or at least to New York City. Sunday night at the end of the show, Lucy said to us, "Don't worry. If this goes anywhere, I'm never going to forget you guys." She wanted to be sure we knew that we'd always be special to her. That she was deeply aware of and treasured the bond between her and her Xena fans. I found it just really sweet, that she'd care about how her next steps might impact us and wanted to reassure us about our "status" with her. What a mom! I felt like a kid going off to college but being told that there'd always be a room for me at home. (Of course, my parents moved while I was away at college-but I did eventually find them.)

Back on the bus, back through the streets of Southern California, back to the hotel, back to the bar.

And I didn't hear one person complain about aching feet or aching legs. We all left with happy faces, happy hearts and happy feet.

KT