Last Friday I scored a couple tickets to finally see a man and a woman that I have had every intention of seeing before but hadn’t. Neumos hosted a really great billing of quirky singer-songwriters Daniel Johnston and Kimya Dawson. Of course Kimya is best known to most people for her contributions to the Juno Soundtrack, and she showed why she is so lovable especially in a live setting. Her speedy delivery and amusing lyrics did exactly what I hope she had set out to do, put a smile on everyone in attendances face. Her set featured songs from her recent children’s album “Alphabutt”, which my wife and I purchased and had her sign, but also an arousing version of “Loose Lips” from the aforementioned soundtrack, and a new hysterical song about my favorite social networking tool, Twitter. Kimya invited Daniel out to play drums for one song calling him “the greatest drummer in the world”, which wasn’t the case at all but still funny and cool. Midway through her set she invited about 10 people up to the stage to help her sing some songs. Kimya mentioned that the ten or so Olympia natives all get together for an open choir practice every Tuesday at 5:30pm in Olympia’s Sylvester Park. She extended an open invitation to the crowd for anyone interested in joining them. Kimya and choir busted into “We are the World” to close the set. She was great, I was pleasantly surprised by how much fun she was and because to by honest her goofy songs are a little outside of my normal musical taste I tweeted that night “Is it weird that I love Slayer, but think Kimya Dawson is awesome too?”, only to unexpectedly receive a response in the morning from Kimya herself saying “@seattlerockguy I love Slayer too. Did you see the “limited edition” Metallica sneakers I wore tonight? My voice is folk, my heart is metal”. Sweet!
Next up was Daniel Johnston, if you don’t know his story please see “The Devil and Daniel Johnston” asap, it gives an excellent depiction of the man, his battle with mental illness, his music, travels, encounters, and just plain interesting life. Daniel played guitar on his first three songs, and had a friend help for the rest. He would flip through his song book, seemingly picking songs at random to sing. He was totally inhibited but still graciously bantered with the adoring audience. His voice and words were equal parts sad, clever, happy, and funny; the humanness of the man shined clear as he wore his life struggles on his sleeve. He played favorites like “Silly Love”, and “Grievances” which includes the famous “Hi, How Are You?” lyrics and even invited Kimya Dawson and choir up on stage to help with an ode to his favorite Beatle John Lennon, singing “You’ve Got to Hide Your Love Away”. I was really happy I was able to finally see the legend in concert, and it was an overall great night of music. Check out my iPhone pics slideshow and videos, the audio turned out great.
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