Happiness You Can't Explain

I roadtripped down to London yesterday to see Po' Girl play at the Half Moon in Putney, and I realized that the degree to which I like a concert is directly related to the number of arcane or unconventional musical instruments they play on the stage. Laura Viers played a couple on the banjo, Jay Brannan had these pseudo-castanets that Bitch taught him how to play, and Po' Girl brought a banjo, xylophone, accordion, clarinet, gutbucket, and a bunch of bicycle bells. Win! (I think they should have a search feature on ticketing websites that lets you restrict your results to shows with banjoes.) And although this is maybe a little weird, I totally have a crush on JJ Jones and want to be her best friend.

So this is Sarah MacDougall, who was a good enough opening act that I'm probably buying her CD.


And Allison Russell and Awna Teixeira...


...and Awna Teixeira and JJ Jones.


Swoon! I think it might be because when JJ drums really hard and gets blurry, the red hair and vest sort of reminds me of one of my favorite college professors. Sarah MacDougall told a story about being really embarrassed about once grabbing Bruce Springsteen's ankle, and I caught myself wondering if I could touch JJ's ankle if I got close enough to the drum set. I made myself stop thinking this for the sake of everyone involved.


And this was the end, when Allison Russell flat-footed the last song on the edge of the stage and I almost peed a little.