Kirstiecat | Blog

It’s been a pretty packed week of music between Sunday night with Mice Parade, Tues. with Kristin Hersh, and last night with Black Rebel Motorcycle Club and when I haven’t been at a show, working my day job, or getting minimal sleep, I’ve been frantically photo editing but I still haven’t quite been able to forget this incident, which happened almost a whole week ago (which feels a little like an eternity.)

Now before I start, I want to say that it really was a treat to see Sloan live again after a year of them not touring and to have the photos on my hard drive…if I ever make it to old womanhood, I’ll be looking through more good memories of great bands.

And…I should also (as I have done for atleast one other of these awkward conversations in the past) preface this because there are people who read this that haven’t ever met me so I should be honest and say that I am a rather intense and passionate person. I mean, sometimes I’d love to be the waifish girl who giggles alot listens only to twee and has no substantial thoughts but the problem is that I like my punk rock just as much as my twee and I have alot of opinions…about everything.

However, I’ve also been on a real winning streak with talking to musicians….quite honestly I have found that they want to be adored, especially the male ones. And the way Chris struts around the stage I would think that he’d know that Stone Roses song by heart. (Not that I mind exactly but this is sort of what I had prepared myself for in real life.)

I’ve been doing these portrait shots. Every photographer has a project, right? And as much as I like photographing musicians while they are actually playing music, there’s a part of me that just really likes different expressions and faces and I like getting a sense of the person without the baggage of all their G turns to D chords. So my project has been just that-waiting until the right moment after a show and getting my shot. I’ve had such good luck with this. I’ve never been turned down and I’ve had great conversations in general with musicians after taking up my camera. I mean, I’ve talked to Jens Lekman about the Tropicalia movement and told Peter, Bjorn, and John about my Swedish grandmother. So I figured talking to Chris would be about as easy as imitating a horror film theremin (try it around a cemetery! It’s really fun!)

I should also say (I’m rambling…bear with me) that the mood was really tense after the show mainly because there were floods of people crowding them and the security guards at the Metro were being incredibly pushy to the point where I was feeling rather overheated, claustrophobic, and completely panicked about not getting my shot. So…basically pressured. I asked Chris if I could take one and he said yes but the security guards basically pushed the lot of us out of the club to the streets which were littered with even more intoxicated people left over from the day’s Sox/Cubs game. It was a nightmare. I waited pretty patiently while a couple of girls hit on Chris and a guy told him he saw them “back in the day when Jet opened up.” and then finally I had my chance. I asked him if we could take it away from so many people. In my head, I was thinking about how many hours it would take me to photoshop out three intoxicated girls and five annoying Cubs fans but I think it came out more like I was asking him to go to my apt. or something (I wouldn’t…) and so I felt a little hurt when he said, “Well, I’m not going on a walk with you.” I swear I was not trying to kidnap him.

Anyhow, I took the photo and I am grateful to him for atleast that and he played the game of making meaningless small talk with an obvious fan, which was nice but dissolved into more awkwardness. The italics are basically my thoughts at the same time that I was talking:

me: Thanks for that. I really enjoyed seeing you guys play. Ok time to bike home now.
him: oh thanks
me: I’m also the girl that posted all of the comments on your myspace page begging you to come play Chicago. Wait…why am I still talking? Get yourself home girl You’re starting to sound like some freakishly obsessive stalker or something!
him: oh really? What’s your name?
me: Kirstie Why did I just go and tell him my name?
him: Kristy?
me: no. Kirstie Why am I correcting him? yeah whatever. Please don’t remember me ever.
him: Kirstie?
me: yes. like Kirstie Alley from Cheers OMG I’m standing here talking to Chris about my least favorite person in the whole world. Can someone please rescue me from what is the worst agony going on right now inside me?
him: I like her.
me: Really? I don’t. Now it sounds like I’m being opinionated and argumentative. I just know it.
him: I liked Cheers.
me: Yeah but after that she became fat and did bad sitcoms Oh for the love of God here. Am I still talking about Kirstie Alley???

It was at this point that I finally ended the conversation and said again nice to see them play or something and left as fast as anyone could leave a crowded street. Maybe it’s not such a good idea to talk to people you admire. Perhaps I should have just gone home.

This entry was posted on Friday, May 25th, 2007 at 5:49 am and is filed under Awkward Conversations About Music, Canada, music. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.