Siobhan Opening For Mike Viola!

As I walked from 8th Street over to Jimmy’s – I passed by the big rotating sculpture on Lafayette (which was gone for a while, but now it’s back). The streets were packed with people, and everyone was bundled up even though it wasn’t THAT cold. That is one of my favorite areas of town even though it’s always a madhouse – because when you look down to your right as you cross that street – you can see the Public, and Joe’s Pub, and the Stella Adler studio – and there are flags, and the buildings are massive, with red stone – huge blocks of red stone – and enormous arched windows – and there’s something almost SOVIET about that particular view. The flags billowing just say PUBLIC or JOE’S PUB and have the plays of the season listed … but there’s something about that particular vista that is my favorite one in the whole city. Even though it looks rather Soviet, as I said, it also has this feel of creativity. It’s a great block. And as I crossed that street – I could hear the sound of three fiddlers – who were standing over by the rotating sculpture, fiddling away, bluegrass music with a strangely Celtic feel. And there were people all around, people wearing scarves, and puffy coats – and even though it was 2:30 pm, 3 o’clock – the sky had a lowered heavy feel to it. No rain, just heavy, and still. The fiddlers and the Soviet block just added to the richness of the atmosphere. I don’t think I could live in that area – way too much foot traffic – but I wish it was more in my everyday path.

Jimmy’s was packed. Warm, kind of humid. After the chill of the outdoors. Jimmy’s is under the street, so you feel like you’re going into a secret hideaway, a speakeasy, a hobbit hole. Down there – the walls are whitewashed – and yet the light is dim. Huge wooden kegs hover above, lining the ceiling. The doorways have these strange arches to them – and the place has a meandering shape to it, so you feel like you’re in a Renaissance-era tavern. And you’re below the street. If you sit at the bar – you can look out the window and see people’s feet walking by above.

In honor of New Orleans, they were serving jumbalaya and gumbo in little plastic bowls. Dee-lish. I had a couple pints of dark frothy beer, and chowed on spicy jumbalaya, waiting for my sisters to show. Jean and Pat arrived first – I saw them through the window clattering down the cast-iron steps. It was so good to see them both! We huddled up in a corner of the bar, talking, eating, drinking. The noise was quite loud. Jimmy himself came over to us to chat. We applauded him for getting Mike Viola. We applauded him because we knew how much this meant to Siobhan. We were beside ourselves. Siobhan sees Mike Viola play once a week at his regular gig – it’s a ritual for her – but Jean and Pat and I have never seen him play. So we were PSYCHED.

Siobhan arrived, lugging her guitar and keyboard behind her. She looked fantastic, her hair long and blonde-ish – and her outfit was vaguely Janet Jackson circa 1991. Gorgeous.

But you know. The main thing was: she was opening for Mike Viola! A surreal experience, indeed. How do you “play it cool”? You don’t. How do you be “over” getting to introduce your idol – and sharing the stage with him? You don’t.

So Siobhan went off to set up. Jean, Pat and I hung out and eventually went and grabbed seats in the back room. Nate then joined us. It was great. Siobhan’s peeps. So for a while it was just us in there … oh, and also the owner’s daughter who is, uhm, 4 years old? They were projecting a cartoon onto the blackboard which is at the back of the stage – and she sat in the back – wearing her pink tights – playing with her dolls, and making a little carousel turn and turn. jabbering away to her mother, and being completely at home in that environment. Every time I see that little girl she is in a costume of some kind. She has her face painted like a cat. She has on a tutu. She has on a pointy princess cone hat. I love it. She lives her life in costume. Chattering away. So that was the background for us.

We ended up having a great talk about books we loved as kids. It was so fun. Nate actually remembers Jennifer, Hecate, Macbeth, William McKinley, and me – or whatever it was called. The OTHER book written by the great EL Konigsburg. It had been one of my favorites so it was so GREAT that he remembered it too!!! Nate told me that he re-read Where the Red Fern Grows – one of those books we all had to read in 7th grade – must have been in the curriculum at the time – and that he thought it stunk the second time around. “The language is all: ‘Oh GEE, maw and paw’ and shit and it’s just horrible.” We talked about going back and re-reading them – and seeing which books stand up as literature – and which books just, uhm, don’t. You know, the ones that are obviously just “for kids” and once you outgrow them you can’t see the merit in them at all. But then there are the books that are just good books PERIOD. Jean and I mentioned Tiger Eyes as an example of a book that is just a good book PERIOD. But it was a really fun conversation.

Eventually more and more people arrived. Jean and I saw Mike Viola arrive. We recognized him immediately. He was with a woman who was obviously his wife and he had his daughter with him who is … 3? Maybe younger than that. The show was early in the day, hence the presence of children. So the two kids sat in the back, jabbering away … The funniest moment was when Viola finally took the stage – and he stood up there, tuning his guitar for about 2 seconds – and his daughter shouted out, clapping her hands, “YAYYYYYYYYYY”. It was so hysterical. He was just tuning his guitar. But she was very validating of this process for him. At one point – he started messing around with Siobhan’s keyboard which she had left up on the stage – he was trying to get a certain sound to come out – He kept trying different chords – said to all of us, “I dont feel awkward right now … do any of you feel awkward?” Ha. But anyway, his daughter just got kinda freaked out by the fact that he was at the KEYBOARD and not playing the GUITAR. It totally stressed her out. She became very quickly inconsolable. hahahaha And what I loved was that Viola heard her begin to weep like an Italian widow – and he quickly gave up the keyboard, picked up the guitar, and launched into a happy song just for her. “I know it has minor chords, baby, but it is a happy song!” We just were all very taken with the daughter – and his communications with her in the back of the room. She was adorable – totally involved in the show. Filled with grief at his experimentation with the keyboard. Filled with pride and joy at the sight of him tuning his guitar. Hysterical.

Siobhan played about 5 or 6 songs – she was wonderful – we were all so proud and psyched. Mike Viola clapping and cheering for Siobhan – being so cool and supportive – Siobhan doing such a great job – it was a really really good afternoon.

And it was doubly thrilling to get to see Mike Viola play – and play some of the songs I’ve been listening to almost non-stop over the last couple months. He opened with “Hang on Mike” (sniff, sniff) – which we all knew – so that was awesome, so fun to see him in person. He’s very likeable. Seemed very cool, funny, sweet – and was sweet with our sister, so that’s all that really matters.