Janelle Monáe! (and oh yeah, Of Montreal)

So I went with troisroyaumes and her significant other S. to see Janelle Monáe and Of Montreal two three weeks ago. Short version: Janelle Monáe was AMAZING. And oh yeah, Of Montreal were fun too.

Longer version: So the awesome thing about this tour is that both these artists have appearances on each other's new albums, and each artist came out on stage to sing that song with the other during their sets. So I got to hear Kevin Barnes doing "Miss the Bus" with Janelle Monáe live--Kevin was also fully clothed, which really does make it a once in a lifetime opportunity, and Janelle Monáe did her song with Of Montreal too.

It was also really, really awesome seeing The Archandroid brought to life! She didn't do the whole album, but she did at least 2/3 of it, in a different order, and it was really, really cool--Cindi Mayweather delivered a video address from the future over the overture before Janelle Monáe and two backup dancers came out in Sith robes. You can tell this from the videos, of course, but HOLY SHIT JANELLE CAN DANCE, and even more than that, her singing is absolutely AMAZING live, just amazing--even better than on the album, and who would have thought that was possible? We were all on our feet by the end, and it was just awesome.

Of Montreal were less so, for a variety of reasons, mostly due to the fact that their music just doesn't grab me the same way. Bay Area audiences also have the habit of smoking tons of pot at shows, which is something I just don't get, because mellow is not how I want to feel at a concert, but that definitely contributed to the general downward trend in crowd energy by the end of the evening (we left at midnight to not miss the last BART, before the end of their set). Also they did my favorite song, "Suffer for Fashion," second, which sort of robbed the set of the power of anticipation for me, and finally, there's just no getting around the fact that after a while a mostly naked Kevin Barnes pretending to have sex with the backup dancers in marathon costume changes gets boring after a while. It's basically what their stage show boils down to, and if that's your thing, more power to you, but it's very one-note; there was hardly any spontaneity or even the appearance of it at all in their set.

So, yeah. Come back Janelle! Help me, Cindi Mayweather, you're my only hope!

I am giving myself permission to do this

Scrolling through my f-list today, I realized that I simply have too much work to do to take the time to give everyone's posts the attention they deserve for roughly the next month. So! What this means is that I am pre-emptively saying that I can make no guarantees as to whether I'll actually be around DW/LJ--I may pop up and make random comments, but if there's something you actually want me to look at, please leave me a comment or send me a PM.

I owe many people translations, starting with my offer for help_pakistan, which I am working on and will be the next translation I finish, unequivocally (sorry! it should be finished very soon). I will post translations in their requisite places as soon as they are finished, I promise. I will also answer comments on posts I may or may not make in future, as well as the ones I owe now, but I probably won't be getting into any very long conversations.

Which reminds me, I need to make a holiday cards post. That will be tomorrow.

So, yes. Take care of yourselves, and wish me luck with these damned papers.