I Love Amy, Emily and John

The concert last night was amazing. John is the best hubby ever - we had the perfect evening. We realized at about noon that we were going to need to eat dinner somewhere...on Valentine's Day. Oh bother. I called some restaurants in Cambridge to see if they could fit us in before the concert, but no luck. One place said that he'd turned away 500 phone calls. Phew.

We were starting to think it was going to be a McD's evening, when one of the girls John works with suggested going to the Pizza Express in Bury at 5pm. Nobody in their right mind is eating then! We'd miss the rush hours getting out of Bury and into Cambridge, and still make the concert in time (the girls weren't on until 9 and they have a history of crap opening acts). So off we went- they had a table. But d'ya want to know who else is at Pizza Express at 5pm on Valentine's Day?

Think about it....

Yup, every member of the under-5 set (with parents in tow) within a 30 mile radius was there. And screaming. Loudly. As they ran around the restaurant.

Somehow John and I managed to block it out while we ate our pizza, which was v. lovely and made slightly more romantic by the rose on our table (intended for the people at the 7pm sitting without the toddlers, natch). Our waitress (whose first language is not English) wished us a "Happy Valentine's....evening!" as we left - she'd obviously heard people referring to it and assumed that the 'day' part was interchangable. Teehee.

Off we trundled to Cambridge, where we were still pretty early, so we went to Frankie & Benny's for a drink before the concert. By this point, it was nearly 8, so EVERYONE who was going out to dinner was out. It was a complete zoo but we managed to elbow our way to the bar.

By 8:15 we were at The Junction for the concert, listening to Catherine Feeny, who was surprisingly good! She's a transplanted Californian living in the UK, with a very Joni Mitchell - type sound. We were pleasantly surprised. :)

The venue's capacity was 750, and we were tickets 318 and 319 when we picked them up. It looked like there were about 450 people there - we were only about 4 rows from the stage (and 3 rows from the back), right in the middle. Amy and Emily seemed really psyched to be there - they played a lot of classics (Closer to Fine, Power of 2, Galileo, Virginia Wolf, The Wood Song, etc), and then a bunch of their new songs (Pendulum Swinger, Money Made You Mean, Little Perennials). Amy also did a rip-roaring rendition of Let It Ring, which is what I would consider to be the ultimate protest song. There was much Bush-bashing at the concert - these two don't feel any shame in saying how much they hate Bush. They were talking about how they want Hillary, Obama and Gore to be a triumvirate. Hey, it could happen.

Here's the pic I took with my cell phone - sorry the quality isn't stellar.


Overall, it was an amazing concert. It didn't have the 'we all know all the words to all the songs' energy of the NYC concerts that I've been to, but the Girls were visibly excited to be there and they were throwing everything in to the performance. They sounded really rested and their voices were great - Amy's was more of a rich baritone than it usually is and Emily didn't have the hoarseness that she can get after a long tour.

John found an interview with them on Wednesday's Woman's Hour on Radio 4: here's the link.

Enjoy!!