austin_tycho | (no subject)

I was ready for the concert and picture-taking on time. I washed my hair out- so it's back to being curly. I put the blow-dryer to it for the first time in who knows how long, trying to bring back some of the magic, but no dice Chicago- my hair is going to be curly forever. It had already gotten a lot of curl back on it's own anyway. A lot of the color stayed, though, and I like it. It's subtle. Subtle works for me.

We all smushed together to get our picture taken. The dress code was black on the bottom half and some solid color on the top half. I went with purple silk- a shirt I haven't worn for years it seems. I had to dust off the shoulders. It's really been awhile since I went to a formal dress-up event (not counting rituals). Some of the old-timers mentioned that there always seemed to be a trend at each concert where a lot of people wore the same color, and this one's was purple. But you know mine was the prettiest purple of them all! Especially with the amethyst and fluorite necklace Kirby made.

We had a green room, a first for me. I was trying to avoid eating anything before the concert, so I had some peppermint tea- but there was fruit, nuts, chips, fruit juices, coffee, hot chocolate, cookies and everything. We all sat around chattering until it was time to line up and get onstage. Everyone applauded as we walked in, and it was a packed house. They said they might have sold out- at 375 people, most of who had to pay to see us, that was another first. Apparently Sara Hickman (I have one of her cds) was plugging us on the radio. Hub was there, along with Gordon and his math-professor-from-Berkeley friend John.

The singing went well. This in spite of the fact that I still wasn't 100% comfortable that I knew all the songs well enough, and I was standing between an alto 1 (I sing alto 2) and someone who had a warbly vibrato and seemed to be guessing at a lot of what she was singing. I also heard the small group songs at last- I'd never stayed after rehearsal to hear what they were singing. They did a wonderful piece that was about how our dead ancestors hang out and watch over us- very Samhainy (with a Native American feel) and lovely. I was glad to be listening and not singing, though, because all the low parts were just rhythmic filler, like 'doo-wop' or playing the upbeats to a Sousa march. Oh well. They also did a somewhat gospel-like one, and I've decided that the lady who does the solos for our encore is only the second-best gospel singer- her style is very flashy and certainly skillful, but the lady in the small group's voice sounded more solid, more real somehow and as skillful. A case of earthy versus firey, and I prefer earthy in this case.

We had an intermission, yet another first. This is another difference between band and choir. In just about every band concert I've been in, we start off sitting on the stage and the curtain goes up and we play 'til we're done. Standing on risers under hot lights seemed pretty taxing to some people, so we probably needed the break though I would have preferred to keep going. But it was about 15 songs, so maybe the audience preferred a break too. The second half was shorter in any event, and we did our gospel finale with the honky Frankenstein clapping (*sigh*). There was a nicely robust standing ovation, though, so I suppose it went over well.

I got a flower from one of the choir people because it was my first concert- a big dark pink gerber daisy. Gordon took us all (hub and John and I, not the whole choir!) out to dinner afterwards and we foundered ourselves, not the best idea since it was so late but what the heck. Hub and I had a soak in the hot tub and I drifted off to sleep snuggled up with him watching 'Inuyasha'.