On a hero

This is a post I’ve been meaning to write for a long time, and now seems like the right moment. I apologize in advance if the post is long, but I’ve got a lot to say on the topic, and I hope you stick around for the whole thing. Today, I’d like to talk about my hero. In elementary school, we often had to write about a hero. I could never really think of someone that I truly looked up to and wanted to be like, so I usually wrote about Tecumseh, a Shawnee Indian who wanted to unite all of the North American tribes to fight off the encroaching white man. I thought he was pretty cool, and that was as close to a hero as I had at the time.

If you asked me to write an essay about my hero today, I would immediately know who I wanted to write about. Her name is Amanda Palmer, and she’s a musician. I first heard of her roughly 3 years ago. A friend had gotten an iPod for Christmas, and I was putting music on it for her while she packed for a vacation. When I was done, I decided to drop a few of the things from her collection onto my own iPod. I added The Dresden Dolls on a whim. I’d heard of them, but wasn’t sure where. They then vanished into the black hole of my iPod (at that point, it had over 3,000 songs on it, many of which I had never listened to), and I didn’t even think of the band for another 3 months or so.

One day that spring, I was walking across campus to class and had my iPod on shuffle. A song that I’d never heard before came on, and it sounded intriguing, so I didn’t immediately skip it. After about a minute of the song, I said “Woah. Too weird.” and moved on. It stuck with me, though, and a few minutes later I came back to the song and gave it another go. This time I absolutely adored it. I’m putting a Youtube video of the song here, should you wish to try it out.

After the second listen, I was hooked. I listened to the rest of the album on my walk back from class, and then immediately got on the internet and searched for the band. I found their website, tons of youtube videos, and Amanda’s blog (The Dresden Dolls is made up of Amanda Palmer and Brian Viglione). Amazingly, Amanda was playing a solo show for her birthday the next week, and it was close enough that I could make the drive. I bought a ticket, got a hotel room, and prepared to be amazed. And I was.

The show was life-changing. Amanda came out early on and announced that since it was her birthday, the opening act was going to be burlesque dancers. Then she came out into the audience and cheered and shouted along with the rest of us. She had two “Ask Amanda” sessions during the show, performed all of my favorites as well as some new songs and some covers, and afterward she came out and signed autographs and chatted. My mind was blown.

Since then, I’ve seen her in concert twice. Once in New York City on New Year’s Eve, and a second time in Nashville. The Dolls have released another album, and Amanda has released three (one solo, one with her “twin sister” Jason Webley, and most recently a Radiohead cover album on ukulele).

One of the great things about Amanda Palmer, in my mind, is that she’s approachable. She definitely has a huge, and very loyal, fan base, but she’s not as popular as, say, Lady Gaga (about whom she wrote a wonderful song). Amanda is on twitter constantly, and she updates her blog with stories and pictures from her life as often as she can find the time to do so. She also webcasts frequently, and holds weekly internet parties on twitter on Friday nights (look for the hashtag #LOFNOTC). She makes it a point to interact with her fans constantly. In fact, she recently left her record label and has been selling (and sometimes giving away), her music directly to her fans. Surprisingly, it’s working for her. When the Radiohead album came out, all of the special packages and physical albums were sold out within minutes (to the tune of something like $15,000).

Recently, when she was in Europe for the Evelyn Evelyn tour, the Icelandic volcano ruined her plans. Her “twin sister” Jason Webley was stuck in the U.S., and she was in the UK, with shows to put on and no support, props, partner, or plan. Twitter came to the rescue (as it often does when she needs a book recommendation, place to stay, ride from the airport, or loaner keyboard), and a band called Bitter Ruin agreed to open for her. Amanda decided to webcast the concert, and delightful mess of unpreparedness, hilarity, and honesty was broadcast directly to my computer. At the next show, they added Jason, via webcam, and the two performed what I suspect was the first inter-continental concert via webcast. It was amazing. The theme of both concerts was “Fuck the Ashcloud,” and she even wrote a song with that title about how her fiance, Neil Gaiman, was stuck in the U.S. and wasn’t going to be able to join her on vacation.

But perhaps the most amazing thing about Amanda Palmer is how ridiculously nice she is. She’s all about equality, friendship, knowledge, and art. She supports small businesses, promotes fellow artists, asks thought-provoking questions and then actually gets involved in the resulting discussion, and listens to what her fans want. She’s the voice of reason and kindness in a mean-spirited world. Every single time I think of her, I smile. She’s making the world better with her music, nudity, tweeting, and absurdity. I honestly believe that.

In any case, the reason that I’m writing this blog now, rather than later. Starting in just a few days, Amanda will be starring in a 43-show run of Cabaret, directed by her high school drama teacher, Steve Bogart. On select nights, she’ll also be hosting Amanda Fucking Palmer’s Late Night Fucking Cabaret afterward. And on one (well, two actually, but that’s irrelevant to my story) of those nights, she’ll be joined by Bitter Ruin, a band that I absolutely fell in love with on the Ashcloud Tour. And I’m going to BE THERE.

OMG. <— Did you see that? I’m so excited that I’ve reverted to saying things like “OMG” because I cannot express myself properly.

So. On October 4th and 5th, I’ll be in Boston, exploring the city and attending Cabaret. I’ll be the one floating around on a cloud, looking supremely blissful, probably carrying armloads of bags containing used records, rare books, gifts for friends, and thrift-store clothes. If you happen to live near Boston and want to attend the show, or if you’ve fallen deeply in love during the course of this blog post and simply can’t miss the show, you can get tickets here. Shows are selling out fast.

And if I still haven’t convinced you, try out these two songs before you go. The first is a live performance of Mandy Goes to Med School, one of The Dresden Dolls’ best songs. Keep your ears open for a snippet of a theme song from a popular tv show in the middle. The second is a performance of Delilah, another fantastic song, with the amazing voice of Georgia from Bitter Ruin. It literally makes me choke up.

And that’s my essay that I wrote about my hero. I hope I get an A!

Advertisement