Thursday’s show was a CD release party for one Gregory Alan Isakov. As a human being, Gregory was a pretty decent guy. He was nice the bouncers and his fans, so I have no room to complain. The music wasn’t my cup of tea, but in this day and age, what is?
This story isn’t about Mr. Isakov and his two dozen special guests. No, tonight’s story is once again about the crowd that came to the concert.
Before I start this story, I must preface it with a disclaimer. I have nothing against lesbians.
I don’t say this is with the frat boy tone of “cause lesbians are hot,” or any other tone for that matter. I truly have found no reason to dislike or put down any lesbian I have ever met. I wish them all the happiness that I wish upon myself and everyone else in this world. Truly.
That being said, as I stood at stage right during the opening act, Tiny Television, I began to notice that a good portion of the crowd appeared to be of the “lesbian persuasion.” The best way for my one-track chauvinistic mind to describe the crowd was females with short haircuts, baggy pants, t-shirts and baseball hats.
I will again say that I am not trying to apply a label to any woman who chooses to dress this way or any lesbian who chooses not to. I am only stating my observations and how they correspond with the fact that society (who I blame COMPLETELY for any judgments I might make) has put labels on people who dress and act certain ways.
Like I was saying, I was standing stage right and “observing” the crowd. They were all having a good time, enjoying the opening band, and none of them were causing any trouble for me. Two thumbs up. As I looked upon these wonderfully behaved, possibly deviant, individuals I began wondering what it was that brought this concentration of them to the Fox on a Thursday night.
The line-up of bands was this: Tiny Television, then Chris Pureka (link), then Gregory Alan Isakov and his amazing feature band. Looking at the production schedule, nothing jumped into out to me as overtly “lesbian” in nature to draw a crowd such as this.
As Tiny Television finished their set I watched as a single female began setting up the stage. This is not out of the ordinary by any means because as it turns out, women are far more proactive when it comes to stage setup than men.
When the stage was clear and only this woman remained, she was holding a guitar and tuning the strings. Suddenly, the house music went down and the stage lights went up. The woman began to sing.
This was Chris Pureka.
I looked to the crowd as she made her way, wonderfully I might add, through the first song. The crowd went nuts; this is who they had come to see.
I felt something like Jason Lee’s character Banky in the movie “Chasing Amy.” I panned the crowd with a “riiiiiight, I get it,” look plastered on my face, complete with an “I am a dumbass” smile. All the puzzle pieces had fallen into place.
What does this story prove? It could be any number of things. It could be that I am an ignorant human being that only classifies people by the way they look and how masculine their names sound. It could mean that the lesbian “conglomerate” of Boulder and Denver counties run in a pack and support “their own.” It could mean that all these wonderful people had made the same choice to come see a show on a Thursday night. It could mean nothing.
Whatever the “moral” of this story, I hope none of you judge me because of what I’ve observed and reported. This is, in fact, just a mildly humorous anecdote I have chosen to share with you.
In other news, Tiny Television was REALLY good. If any of you get the chance to catch them at any manner of venue/coffee house/backyard I would highly recommend it.
