I was on the train into the city yesterday to drop off job applications (I’m super poor) and I heard somebody shout “Maxwell Tielman” from across the car. Looking up from my magazine, I saw that it was Lauren, somebody that I’ve been trying to hang out with for ages. The problem with leaving Pratt is that I hardly see any of my Pratt friends anymore and our conversations have been whittled down to facebook messages that say things like, “We should hang out!” — “Yes, totally!! Soon!”
I got up and went across the train to sit down next to Lauren. I told her that I was on my way to apply for jobs and she told me that she was going to see Mandy Moore in concert. Being an über Mandy Moore fan since A Walk To Remember came out, I got super excited. It turned out that if you bought a copy of her new album at Best Buy, you could use your receipt to get into a “special acoustic performance.” So, you buy the album for $12 and get a free concert ticket! Not a bad deal!
I hopped off the train at Spring Street to pass out resumes and applications, but soon wandered over to the nearest Best Buy to pick up the album. From there, I walked over to the venue where the show would be (some place called the Highline Ballroom). I met Lauren in line and there were only about ten other people in front of us. Apparently, Mandy isn’t nearly as popular now that she has crossed over to singer/songwriter territory, but that was all the better for us. After a few hours, Lauren’s friend Abby came to meet us in line and, at 7pm, the doors opened.
We scurried inside and found ourselves literally one person away from the stage. If we wanted to, we could reach out and touch it. We passed the time before the show started discussing old Mandy Moore videos and contemplating whether or not it would be in good taste to ask her to sing “Candy.” At around 8:30, they dimmed the lights and Mandy, Mike Viola (her guitarist), and her keyboard player walked out onto the stage. And it was pretty awesome. I was kind of scared that Mandy wouldn’t talk to the audience or it would be that awful scripted talking that a lot of teen-pop stars do, but she was actually quite personable. It was also kind of weird that like ten years ago, she was basically the same as Britney Spears and now, here she was, singing folk music in front of just a few hundred people.
Check out how close we were (photos by Lauren):
This is Abby and I being really, really excited before the show:
And here’s a video I found of one of the songs at the show:
I just wish that she wouldn’t destroy any indie cred she’s been trying to achieve by doing stuff like this: