julietteandthelicks Blog and Journals

So, yesterday, I was on my way to pick up my niece and her mom, when a commercial comes on the radio for The Donnas concert that night, and I realized "Holy crap, that's tonight? I have a ticket for that!" Haha, I had completely forgotten the date of the concert and would definitely have missed it if it hadn't been for that commercial. When I got home, I went into my email and printed out my ticket confirmation to get my actual ticket from will call, printed some directions to the venue, quickly put on some makeup and brushed my teeth, put on my Chucks and dashed out the door.

The Brickhouse is a bar in downtown Phoenix in an old brick building (surprise!). I had never been there before, and having been raised in the suburbs, I'm a little bit afraid of the city. The fact that I was going there alone, at night, only heightened my fears.

Anyway, enough of the set-up - I found the place without too much trouble, other than some other concert blocking off the street and having to walk about a block, and I got a little ticket from will call, then the guy at the door gave me a wrist band. I wandered through the people mingling in the bar area and headed toward the stage, where the next band was setting up. I missed one band before I arrived, and the first band that came on while I was there was Donita Sparks, and they were pretty good. Entertaining, though I don't think I'll go out and buy their music.

After Donita Sparks was Juliette and the Licks. I wasn't sure what to expect from them, because I had never actually heard any of their music, but had read a bunch of reviews and articles about them, with mixed results. I thought they were really good though. Great energy, they sounded good and looked good. Juliette has a lot of stage presence and is very charsmatic, which she also brings to her acting performances. The crowd went crazy for them, and Juliette crowdsurfed - luckily she didn't quite make it to me, because I had a camera in one hand and a water bottle in the other.... They did a very fun cover of Hot Stuff by Donna Summer.

A lot of people left the stage area after Juliette and the Licks, so I wound up in the third row of people, but I noticed the guy in front of me had left quite a bit of space between himself and the people in front of him, so I asked him if there was room in front of him, since I'm relatively short (I'm average, but at concerts I always wind up feeling short), and he let me go in front of him - woohoo! That's the closest I've ever been, and my first show at a small venue. I wouldn't have been as excited if it was some band I didn't give a crap about, but it's The fuckin' Donnas! I love them!

The crowd wasn't as responsive for them as for Juliette and the Licks, and I wonder if it was because it was getting kind of late or just because the people who were the craziest during the previous set had left. Either way, the girls did their best to get us riled up, and I thought they were fantastic. Such energy, so much fun! And Allison (the guitarist) just blows my mind. She's so awesome, and her hair looked great!

One thing that was really cool about such a small setting, is that Brett (the singer) would look at individual people and sing at them, and she smiled and made a "Yeah!" motion with her mouth at me while I was singing along to Take It Off. I know everyone says things like that, but it was so exciting to have it actually be true this time! Haha...although, 'til the day I die, I'll swear that Trent Reznor looked at me too....