First Night Fillled In
I already wrote up a short report from the first night, Thursday. Here’s some more details.
You know I’m not much of a club goer. Before the Roxy, I’d never been to a club that didn’t have seats. I guess most of them don’t these days-I’m not sure if you’re supposed to dance or if they just want to be able to squeeze more folks in.
The club is set up so that as you walk in the door, directly in front of you is the end of the bar, stretching out along the left wall. On the right is the wall of the "bleachers", where the VIPPERS (as I called them) got to sit. I don’t know if they had tables or not-I didn’t go there and didn’t really look up there except when I noticed a flurry of movement as I was scanning the open area and looked up to see a friend of mine waving at me. At each end of the stage, where it curved back towards the back wall, small chairs were set up which were used as accessible seating and also provided more VIP seats. Then there was the open space which took up most of the club.
The shows started at 8:00 p.m. The charter buses left the hotel at 6:45 to allow for traffic into NY going through the Holland Tunnel or sometimes (inexplicably) the Lincoln Tunnel. The first night, I got myself there so arrived just before the show started. There was a band of people standing cheek by jowl and lower cheek by crotch, smooshed up as tightly as could be, pressing up against the edge of the stage. There were maybe 5-7? rows or so of this enmeshed mass. Behind them there was somewhat more space and so that’s where I planted myself. The first night, I scored a primo spot. I found a column that I could lean against while leaving a nice little open space in front of me. But best of all, the minute I leaned back I realized that there was cool air pouring down on me from somewhere in the ceiling, blowing right in my face. Very pleasurable. And heck, I was only about 15 feet, if that, from the stage. Sweet.
Ever since I first found out that Lucy was singing in New York and that I would be able to go, I’ve been singing that old show tune, "I like New York in June." Well, actually, I don’t-I try to avoid New York in the summer-just don’t like the heat and humidity of the East Coast at that time of year. And sadly, I found the climate even a bit hotter than I remember it being in June. It felt more like late July than early June. I just thank the gods it didn’t feel like August. And of course the hall got VERY hot once all the bodies got packed in there. And all that flushed excitement and anticipatory breathless panting certainly helped raise the temperature also. So that "breath of fresh air" was a lovely and unexpectedly delightful gift.
And being out in the open space, a lot of my friends saw me and I got to visit with lots of folks. This was a nice little bonus since this was the first event of this con and so it was the first time I’d had a chance to say hello to some old con buddies.
By the way—I thought this was noteworthy too--the bathroom situation was the most clever set-up in that line that I’d ever seen. You went downstairs and there was a small open hall with door after door side by side along three walls. Each door led to a small unisex bathroom with a commode and sink. And there were guys down there whose job it was to point you to the available bathrooms. It was great-very little waiting no matter how large the crowd because all the stalls were potentially available to all. The only twitch was that as often as not, you’d go into one and the seat would be up. Not something you usually have to deal with in more common gender separated public bathrooms. But still a very efficient method-I was very impressed.
Oh, I was going to tell you about Tig’s story about us in January at the Roxy. First, it tickled me-Tig was teasing us about how she noticed that when anybody mentions anything about Lucy like for example something about the Roxy, people in the audience will nod and say, "Uh-huh" to validate that they’d been there. She also talked about how some of us notice EVERYTHING and treasure it and happily talk about it-"And there were these two yellow lines running down the middle of the street . . ."
She asked if anyone remembered the streetside dining patio located very near the Roxy. Laugh-I’m betting some people yelled out "Yeah!" but I was talking to someone at the moment and came in on this story a bit late so couldn’t testify to that.
When Tig left the Roxy one night, there was a clump of fans holding Lucy photos and posters standing in front of this outdoor dining spot. They said "Hi!" to Tig and told her they were waiting for Lucy. She told them Lucy had already left. They immediately said, "Well, will YOU sign our pictures?" Tig agreed. She said to us, "I was dressed like I am tonight" (T-shirt, open long-sleeved (plaid I think) shirt, informal pants, sneakers, brown hair cut very short). And then she began to sign these pictures of this gorgeous, fabulous, fancy dressed, bursting with curls running all the way down her back, bursting with breasts barely concealed on her front, blond. And she imagined the folks eating at the outdoor patio watching them. And probably noticing over Tig’s shoulder that she didn’t match the picture much. Tig said, "They’re thinking, ‘Boy, has she gone downhill. Wonder what HAPPENED to her?"
She talked about working for Lucy and that one of her jobs was entertaining Daisy. She had a very funny story about one of her first days at work taking Daisy to a theme park and being on the roller coaster when her cell phone rang. It was one of her good friends who asked, "What’s that clanking noise? (The roller coaster car being pulled up the hill, creaking, chunking link by link.) "Where are you?" Tig said, "I’m at work", just as the car plunged down and everyone began to scream at the top of their lungs. Her friend asked, "Just what kind of job did you get that has machinery roaring and people screaming like that?" I’m betting you had to be there, but it was hilarious-Tig is very deadpan-I would definitely pay to go see her at a club.
This was typical of Tig’s whole routine. Much of her humor is slice of life stuff that’s very low key. But totally based on just how odd daily life can be and therefore very funny.
It is of course a cliché to say that "Lucy was electrifying." But she was. There was a huge anticipation in the audience as we waited for Lucy to appear. We were like decades long drought-stricken tinder, just holding on and waiting for the life-giving rain. Which so often starts with the blast of a thunderbolt. Even as we visited together, we were still subliminally waiting, expectantly buzzing along in the "quiet" before the storm. And when Lucy flashed out onto the stage, the lightening struck. Her sparks of wild energy flew towards us igniting us all. Our answering roar was absolutely deafening.
You know, I keep writing about Lucy igniting the hall. All these images of fire and flames. But heck, they don’t use the word "Hot" for sexual presentation for nothing, ya know.
Lucy gets better each time she performs in public. She was excellent at the Roxy. But she was even more relaxed and confident at Canal. It was obvious she was having a great deal of fun and had left lots of her insecurity about singing behind.
As I said in my first report, it was an excellent, exhilarating and totally delightful performance. We were all way high before, during and after the show. So totally jazzed to be sailing along in the Lucy storm. Just a-floatin’ on Canal.
And one thing-I made that comment that the Empire State Building, since it was lit up with purple lights, was obviously a lesbian Lucy fan. The next morning in the shower, I was thinking about that and suddenly laughed to myself since the Empire State Building is just so phallic an image. But I decided, "I’m still right-she was packing." (I wasn’t going to bring this back up, but I received a reply from a prissy woman (you know who you are, Ms. Prissy), complaining on exactly this point. And that’s my answer to you too. Phhhhffffffftttt!
