Polly at the Cotton Club
Dec 15 '00
Last night my best friend and I went to the Cotton Club in Atlanta for the first time to see PJ Harvey. Being one to not be very comfortable in crowds - I need my "personal space, and I'm 5'2", shorter than EVERYONE - I was leery. After a mishap with the directions, we got there around 8:30. It was COLD. The guy from New York that was behind us probably thought we were a bunch of sissies, but oh well.
We finally got in around 9:30 and waited. Luckily for me, there was a sign at the door saying "Polly asks that you not smoke during the show." BIG PLUS!!! It bothers me anyway, but I've been sick for a few days. Plus, I didn't want to wash my hair three times to get the smell out.
Polly comes out sometime after 10:00pm in a black sleeveless shirt and a tiny black patent leather skirt. She is so cute! She starts with This is Love and Big Exit from the new CD, Stories from the City, Stories from the Sea. The sound was amazing. We were about 20 feet from the stage. The Cotton Club was very small, and we stood below the 5 or 6 speakers suspended from the ceiling. Needless to say, my ears were ringing when we left.
Forgive me, but I'm not sure of the order of songs. I lost track toward the end. She did seem to play a couple of new ones, then a couple of old ones. She played something from all of her albums. From Stories she played This Is Love, Big Exit, You Said Something, A Place Called Home, Kamikaze (which people were screaming for), and Horses In My Dreams. I would say only a minority of people were familiar with the new stuff. But with the small venue, most of us were longtime fans who new her older songs.
From To Bring You My Love, she played Down By the Water (a real crowd pleaser) and Send His Love To Me. We were hoping to hear The Dancer, but we couldn't complain. Only The Sky Lit Up was played from Is This Desire?. This fact is strange, because Perfect Day Elise was the one the radio stations played.
From Rid Of Me, she played Man-Size as her first encore song, which rocked (sorry for the lame expression, but it did), and Dry. Everyone was singing along with her, "douse it with gasoline..." There were a couple of songs I didn't recognize (one was Sheila-Na-Gig), which I think are from Dry. I don't have it yet, but I've got my Columbia House order form right here. Also, there wasn't much stage banter from her besides the occasional "thank you" and "thanks for coming, goodnight" at the end.
My Rant
Okay, I have to do this. I was wondering during the show if I would be to p*ssed off to write a good review (that remains to be seen). As I've said, I'm 5'2". Virtually everyone there was taller than me. I couldn't see PJ for half of the show. All I could see were these big heads. There was a couple groping each other and playing tonsil hockey a few feet away. There was a guy we called Ponytail who was trying to mosh. Yes, mosh. At PJ Harvey. He whipped his ponytail in a few faces. OK, back to me. Yes, I was claustrophobic. My legs ached from standing so long. My hair kept getting pulled (it's to my waist). Maybe I am a sissy. Leigh (my best friend) and I came to the conclusion that we're old. Is 26 old? Let's ask all the college kids who were there.
Anyway, the show was excellent and I would do it again. Even on a Thursday night. PJ puts on an excellent show, and gets bonus points for the non-smoking signs.
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Epinions.com ID:
christy13
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Member: Christy
Location: Powder Springs, GA
Reviews written: 16
Trusted by: 10 members
About Me:
I'm a music & animal lover, and gun owner, vegetarian, and a CD junkie.
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