20/02/2009

At the after party

A report from popwatch.ew.com of Roisin's performance at the Kai Kühne after party last night...


My favorite artist in the whole wide world (WWW), Irish dance-pop goddess Róisín Murphy, played a five-song acoustic set last night at the after party for the fashion show of her longtime friend, designer Kai Kühne. The venue -- the National Arts Club on Gramercy Park -- was intimate, but crazy-packed and loud -- many of the partygoers wouldn't even shut up while she was singing! I wanted to murder them. But I didn't!

After her set, Róisín kept drifting back and forth through the crowd, indulging obsessive fans whose audacity (obnoxiousness?) I very much envied. My partner-in-party-crashing Missy Schwartz kept nudging me towards her, aggressively whispering missives along the lines of "Seize the day!" and other sweet, sweet nothings. We didn't have an interview set up, so I had no legit reason to bother Róisín. I was just there on last-minute notice as a super fan. The voices in my head began to argue. (Don't bug her! She's used to it. What are you even gonna say, fool? JUST SAY HI -- you'll never have another chance!) I imagined the thousands of ways I could mess this up. Maybe I'd whip out a color printout of my desktop background (Róisín's Overpowered album cover silhouetted against the Candy Land game board) and say something terrible like "Check it out -- YOU'RE ALWAYS ON MY COMPUTER." Or I'd force her to inspect the back of my iPod, on which is engraved a quote from the Moloko (Róisín's former band) song "Forever More" -- feel it furious / the fire burns on. And she'd have to politely pretend to be able to read the tiny letters amidst my disgusting finger smudges, in a darkened, incredibly noisy room. I shuddered. Suddenly she was right there.

In the end, I awkwardly spit out around 18 variations of the general concept of "I love you/I'm obsessed with you" which was both A) a major understatement and B) possibly creepier than the hypothetically embarrassing scenarios mentioned above. But, of course, she was totally sweet about it. So that's my story. I love/am obsessed with Róisín Murphy. For better or worse, now she knows.

Have you ever completely wigged out in the presence of a pop-culture obsession?

7 comments:

A. said...

im not too sure that i didnt write this...

sounds exactly like the kind of thing that would happen to me.

cutest story ever.

x

Anonymous said...

I met her in Brussels 3 years ago and the only little words that came out from my mouth were: "nice to meet you".
I was so impressed...even if she's really sweet and funny!

Anonymous said...

It really, really, REALLY p****s me off when audiences don't shut up during a performance. You pay good money to go to a gig only to have it ruined by idiots shouting away, not to mention half the audience too busy fiddling about with their mobile phones intent on getting photos and video to "prove" they were there.

I now think enjoying a gig is near impossible. The golden days died once mobile phones took their evil grip.

Anonymous said...

I had a dream where I met Roisin and said "Oh Roisin I love your music" and then she kisses me!

Anonymous said...

I haven't met Roisin, but I was upfront and center at the NYC show and she grabbed my arm during Primitive and pulled me towards the stage and accidentally caused me to hit my face against the stage - But I was totally thrilled about it! I didn't hit the stage hard at all, it was probably one of the coolest moments of my life.


The other coolest moment, I'm a major Sia fan and she actually CALLED my house phone and sang my favorite song by her (Pictures) on my message machine (after months and months of me badgering her at shows to perform it! lol) she even has a video of her calling me on her website! lol I pretty much shit myself right then and there.

Anonymous said...

I first saw Róisín performing last May in a small venue in Groningen. I stood up front, leaning on the stage, there was nothing between the crowd and the stage.
She totally blew me away and seemed to be having a lot of fun doing so. All through the show she kept looking and smiling at me and when she played You Know Me Better, she actually kneeled down in front of me so she was eye to eye, grabbed my arm and sang the whole second couplet just for me.
Amazing! Oh, and she also nearly tripped and fell on me, stood on my fingers and dropped her microphone onto the person standing next to me.
This has been and will most likely always be the best show I have ever been to.

Anonymous said...

A lot of nice stories, here.
In Luxemburg, I was just in front of her, at about 1.5, 2 meters.

When she performed "Primitive", she was looking at me right in my eyes. I was, how to say, quite upset. And delighted too.

Michel