Oh man, here we go...
1. Walked to Ross' place for an excellent pre-show dinner and overheard the following exchange between two scalpers as I walked past the Electric Factory (w/ Autobiography on the iPod):
Scalper 1: Tickets! Sellin' tickets!
Scalper 2: Man, that guy's coming home from work with a backpack! Use your head!
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
2. Ate dinner w/ the gangg, listened to Getz/Gilberto and the Veronicas in alternating tracks, kind of a trip. RIP V's tour. When asked about other good dinner albums, I listed Getz/Byrd, which was a cop-out, I guess. I like the version of "Desafinado" on Getz/Byrd better and I think that song was playing, or maybe "When It All Falls Apart."
3. Walk up to the venue as Ashley Parker Angel finishes "Soundtrack to Your Life"...perfect timing! Effusive greeter duct tape-labeled "greeter" greets us. Some band gives us their CD and tells us to burn it (Ross: "I guess we'll decide how later," ha!).
4. Pay a crapload of money. Oh well.
5. Enter to a barely half capacity crowd. Apparently Belle and Sebastian packs the place. We start off standing in the back with all the parents. Emily points out small children and makes "aww" faces. Emily, re: Ashley w/ head down, back to the audience, arms outstretched with guitar signs: "JESUS POSE!"
6. APA does a bit about Myspace: "You guys, I am seriously addicted to Myspace!" The crowd goes wild, looks like everyone has a Myspace except MY LOSER FRIENDS. Kind of surprised at the responses for Ashley, lots of screaming and "I WANT TO HAVE YOUR BABY" from girls clearly not old enough to have anyone's babies! Demographic range was all over the map...youngest was probably 6 or so, oldest (aside from parents) were the weird 21+ people in the upstage bar area, mean age somewhere around 14/15? The bar area was divided almost in half by old older oldest fans and fake ID'd high school kids. For most of the concert we stood behind twins (!) who could have been anywhere between 11 and 16, the tall, incredulous, view-obstructing bf of one or both of them looked older, was not amused ever. Ross asked them something (what the intermission music was, I think...Michelle Branch and Santana, weird) and I secretly hoped they would break into song.
7. Oh wait, the rest of APA. "I'm so glad my mom was a piano teacher, she really blah blah blah. So in a lot of songs, I've tried to emphasize the piano elements." Cue piano elements, Ashley croons solo. Emily: "This is kind of boring, isn't it?" Yes. I think the band was the same as on TRL, fauxhawk dude (well, the 'hawk was real, but HE was kinda faux) + Tenacious D T-shirt dude + drummer. In the middle is perfect-hair Ashley, the Norse god of metrosexuality. (Hm, that joke didn't work last night, either...) They ask the audience to sing along to "Message in a Bottle," boring cover anyway, and I think most of the audience was mystified (isn't this the song mom sings along to in carpool?) "Let U Go" almost brought down the house, but he didn't sing the money note! Same as the Veronica's money note..."you said FOREVEEEEEEEEEERRRRR." Hey, I want my life savings back!
INTERMISSION: OMG, someone is going out to lunch with ASHLEE tomorrow! Or was it ASHLEY? Or maybe it was just plain old Ashley.
8. The black curtain opens and there's a nice set-up, large staircases on both sides of a raised platform decked out with fake candles and projection screen, five-piece band on the ground floor plus two back-up singers. Pedro from Napoleon Dynamite comes on and tells everyone to vote for him, not the world's greatest hype man. Ashlee enters to some Halloween fanfare and goes into "Boyfriend." Is she lip syncing? WAITING FOR THE SNEEZE!
9. I'm not sure why I was so obsessed with the lip syncing bit. Was it all canned? Was it partially live and partially recorded? Skeptical during "Burnin' Up" but "Autobiography" kicked enough ass to make me not care, and by "Shadow" she'd messed up once, proving definitively it was 100% Ashlee. Didn't see her first tour for comparison (hard to get a feel for it from Youtube), but her singing was great for the whole performance, except maybe two ballads where she was a little off.
10. Ashlee giggles a lot. Total goofball, doesn't even dance, really, but does more of a cross-stage jig a la SNL but less heartbreaking. "You ever wake up and have one of those days where, like, everything you say is just...off? I'm totally having one of those! Hahahahaha..." She seems to be having a good time. Thanks us for coming out, looking back at the half-empty club I feel kind of off.
11. Nice (brief) cover of "Sweet Dreams," Ashlee in top hat. Later, wearing a sort of French maid/farmhand/fishnet number: "it's so much fun playing dress-up!" Emily: "She's not sexy; she's a little sister. And with her hair long like that she looks just like Jessica."
12. Forget the set list, but she played "In Another Life" (sounded great), acoustic "Beautifully Broken" (only ballad that sounded great), "Catch Me When I Fall" and "Undiscovered" also acoustic (eek and sorta-eek...whoa, it DOES sound like "taste of Marcus on your lips"), "Eyes Wide Open," and OMG she played "Love Me for Me"! The squeal/shriek left something to be desired, but the song was a highlight. She also covered the song that Jessica Rabbit sings in the night club, completely devoid of sexitude (but fun in a little sister sorta way).
13. Pre-encore finale was "La La," best I've ever heard it live (again, Youtube isn't much of a comparison), then after a brief applause break she returned with "L.O.V.E." and "Pieces of Me." The band had hand gestures that emphasized the coded IM in the chorus..."L-O-L-O-L-O-L-O-L-O..." The last song had an accompanying slideshow...alas, no signs of John or Kara. Ashlee was kissing someone on the beach, though. Didn't look very sexy (Ross and/or Emily(?): "I'm sure she's had sex...but she probably hasn't had good sex").
14. My ears are still ringing and I'm broke. This is why I never leave the house!!!
EDIT: Ashley/Ashlee just cancelled their next two PA shows, presumably due to lack of ticket sales. A little upsetting, but I'm glad I got a chance to catch them on tour...
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