I arrived at the Disney Concert Hall early last night, way too early. I sat around the outer ring of the cafeteria and watched the interesting people pour in. With an artist as “strange” as Antony Hegarty on stage that night I knew I’d be in for some interesting people watching. I saw everything from the reformed butch motorcycle gay guys to young (and stupid) white girls who thought they were geishas. There were plenty of flamers (“look, I have a sparkly hat with dangly things to draw attention to myself while I flail my hands when I talk!”), nu-bohemians (i.e. guys and girls that borrowed their parent’s clothes and forgot to bathe for a quite a while – maybe they got lost on the way to a Bloc Party show), renaissance fair fans, gay-goths (skinny guys with Placebo sweatshirts, black hair, black nails and mascara) and regular music lovers who dragged their girlfriends along to show everyone that they aren’t gay they just like good music. Awful lot of the last one there.

Finally at 7:55pm (show was supposed to start at 8) I was walking/riding up to my level and door when the ushers started shouting “everyone, we are closing the doors and starting the show, this is the last call.” I ran as fast as I could and took my seat. Twenty minutes later the lights were still up and people were still filing in. I grumbled to myself as is my custom.

The WDCH is very interesting inside. Overhead there is a billowing cloud of curved wood floating above wooden balconies on all four walls. On the sides of the wooden cloud there were faint hidden blue lights that, when turned on, produced a feeling of sunlight filtering in from outside. I had to keep reminding myself that it was dark outside. I had the good fortune to have a center seat in the second balcony facing the stage. The giant room is more vertical than most concert halls I’ve been in. It would seem that most eyes in the balcony are about the same distance from the stage – making the “nosebleed” seats not so bad. Directly across from me was the giant wooden pipe organ sculpture (hiding the actual organ). For most of the night the organ was lit up in orange light – which made it look like an exploding bowl of macaroni and cheese to me.

Around 8:30 the conductor came on the stage, and in short succession Antony – in some kind of billowing white dress made of too-thin fabric (reminiscent of the cover of Atrocities, actually) . For the first two songs (I’m guessing from the new “Another World” EP) the only light on the stage was on the conductors music stand – which was perfectly centered and angled to reflect right in my eyes. Antony warbled around in the dark in front of the twenty piece orchestra. Eventually more lighting was used, but at most the lighting was still very minimal – a few spotlights in a few different colors.

The music was beautiful, as was to be expected from the LA Philharmonic, but I quickly became disappointed with the volume. Call me uncouth, but I’m used to a concert being loud. I realize this kind of instrumentation is a bit different, but for Madama Butterfly the music was much louder (and these were the same twenty musicians). Then again, I was in a $200 seat at the DCP, not in the second balcony.

I was also disappointed by Antony’s choice of material. It seems like this was another example of the old “I’ll surprise them with all my new stuff and sprinkle in a tiny bit of old.” The new EP was only released one week ago. If these were the new songs – I can tell you that most of them are actually quite good, but I would have still preferred to hear more “favorites.” The songs I do remember recognizing included:

For Today I am a Boy
Cripple and the Starfish
I Fell in Love with a Dead Boy
Crazy in Love (yes, a Beyonce Knowles cover…. you have to hear it to believe it)

After the show I passed a really really really fat guy and heard him saying “that was Fistful of Love, right?” No sir, I don’t remember that song being played. …but there is no setlist I can find anywhere on the net to verify my poor (or accurate) memory.

There was a one song encore that was prefaced by a long “thank you” from Antony to the orchestra and then an even longer description of the inspiration for the song. Apparently this particular song was inspired by the death of Marsha P. Johnson in 1992 and in fact the name of his band was adopted from her/his. Antony said “that had a big effect on me as I was 21 at the time and just discovering the gay liberation movement.” He went on a long diatribe about the STAR organization Marsha was in and how several of his friends knew her personally and vouched for how nice she was. He paraphrased and said that “she would panhandle all day and then give all the money to a friend who asked for it – and then go out and panhandle again.” Now Antony said some things that wikipedia seems to not touch on – like how several members of STAR frequently prostituted themselves to pay for the shelter. And after that long introduction the orchestra began to play River of Sorrow. A good choice, a song I’ve been listening to more and more lately.

After that one song Antony left the stage to a standing ovation and never returned. It was barely 9:40pm, he had been on stage little more than an hour. Probably the shortest concert I’ve ever seen, especially considering there was no opening act. I suppose the excuse is that this show was “special” because of the orchestra. To my disappointment, Antony had explained (before the Marsha P. Johnson speech) that the orchestra had done an “incredible job” after only having the music for two days. Two days? So this wasn’t “special” at all. The music was written a long time ago and is the same setlist and orchestration in every city (not that there are many) of this tour. Sorry, Antony, that cheapens my enjoyment a bit knowing that the musicians are just doing their “day job” and have only rehearsed once or twice and could care less about the content.

I would have much preferred to see the set they’ve played other times.

I did like getting home before 11 though.