AMANDA. FUCKING. PALMER.

So, the show was absolutely amazing. The two opening acts were Vermillion Lies and The Builders and the Butchers. Everyone was supported and MC'd by The Danger Ensemble, and there was a British chap by the name of Lydon Chester.

Vermillion Lies are like a kind of neo-Edwardian Faerie Tale Cabaret, in the form of two red-haired sisters named Zoe and Kim. They have a gleeful kind of insanity and malice, to them, and they are smoking freaking hot, to boot. If you like liking things, then you should listen to them, right the fuck now, and give them a serious amount of your money. I met them and they were nice, and they gave me caramel corn. I fucking LOVE caramel corn.

The Builders and the Butchers are... Well. They are the best possible thing that could Ever happen in the event that you were to stick Tom Waits, Nick Cave, and Caitlín R Kiernan's writings about the south into a blender with some power-pop, some postrock, and a Tarantella/Tango sensibility, and have the vocal work in that resultant Sound Smoothie done by Eli. The energy, the pure fucking ROCK FORCE they put into a show... astounding and astonishing.

Amanda Palmer was... Amanda Fucking Palmer. (Vermillion Lies - [More and More]). She was funny and she was powerful and she rocked the godsdamned house. (Vermillion Lies - [Bad Man]). She did versions of her songs that were deeper and more meaningful than they had ever been, and she told stories and Neil Gaiman told a story and she answered questions, and someone proposed to someone else on stage. It was wonderful. The version of "Half Jack" she did, with Lydon Chester on violin, was deeper and more desperate, at the same time. (Vermillion Lies - [First the Bees]). The Encores. Three of them.

Amanda and everyone taught us of the Zen of Master Jon Bon Jovi, and his consumate Koan "Livin' on a Prayer."

Amanda played "Creep," on the Ukelele.

There was a ridiculously EPIC lip-synch/dance along to Rhianna's "Umbrella" (ella, ella, ella). Those were not in order.

There was, finally, a Happy Hardcore cover of "Coin-Operated Boy."

Vermillion Lies - [The Organ Donor's March]--- I am undoubtedly forgetting something, here. If you have the opportunity to see this show, do it. Do it.

DO. IT.

I just cannot express how grateful I am to